American gymnast Brody Malone was expected to continue his extraordinary comeback from a serious leg injury suffered in March 2023 by competing for an all-around medal at the Paris Olympics.
Instead, after falling twice on the high bar — his specialty — and once on the pommel horse in the qualifying round, Malone won’t be competing in the all-around final.
He is a three-time all-around U.S. champion.
“What happened here today is done and over,” Malone said, per The Washington Post. “There’s nothing I can do about it now. Just do the best I can to be ready for team finals.”
Frederick Richard and Paul Juda will be the two athletes competing in the all-around final for the United States, which finished behind Great Britain in the first of three subdivisions Saturday in the qualifying.
Richard, who finished first all-around in the U.S. Olympic trials and earned a bronze in the 2023 world all-around competition, was no surprise to finish well enough for the all-around, but Juda’s presence in the final is unexpected.
“A couple of months ago or maybe even a couple of years ago, I don’t think I would have been able to do that,” said Juda after the competition, per NBC. “I’ve been working super hard on the sport psychology side of the sport, my mental health, sports performance, etc., and those are the reps that really allowed me to do what I did today.”
Richard finished third among early qualifiers with 83.498, and Juda finished at 82.865. Malone was well back at 79.598, far below his 86.350 score at nationals
“In the last couple of weeks I had a feeling I might be going first on a couple of events and probably most likely pommel horse,” said Juda. “As most gymnasts know it’s one of the trickier events to go on but I knew if they put me first, that I earned that myself … and I was ready for it.”
Great Britian finished with a team total 256.561, ahead of the Americans with 253.229, a flip from last year’s world championship when the U.S. team finished third in front of Great Britain.
Eight teams advance to the team final, and the top 24 individual gymnasts qualify for the all-around finals, with a limit of two per country.
The qualifying competition will be completed later Saturday.
–Field Level Media
