The U.S. Men’s gymnastics team is making its final preparations for the Paris Olympic Games with continuing training and practices at Bercy Arena, which will host competitions for artistic gymnastics – of course – as well as basketball and trampoline.
While the men’s team may not have garnered as much attention as the women’s in the past few years, that’s not stopping the athletes from making their final push so they can win a spot on the podium for the first time since 2008.
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“In my head, the way I keep myself grounded is that it's just another competition,’ Asher Hong, a first-time Olympian and the 2023 world champion, said. “But you know you want to stay in the moment, not take yourself out of the moment too much.”
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A couple of days before the opening ceremony, Bercy Arena may be bustling only with athletes and their coaches, but soon the Paris venue would be packed with tens of thousands fans.
“I think it's crazy, walking around the arena and seeing the seats [that are] going to be filled in a couple of days. It’s exciting,” Frederick Richard, who is competing in the Olympics for the first time, said.
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The athletes carry the heavy responsibility of representing the nation, but they are also reminded that their hometowns and communities would be rooting for them.
“I am most looking forward to having my family come out,” Brody Malone, a two-time Olympian, said. “Tokyo being my first olympics that didn't get all that side of it, [I’m] so looking forward to seeing a crowd and having my family.”
Richard also hopes the games will help highlight the strengths and joy of the sport, especially for the communities of color that may not be familiar with men’s gymnastics .
“The black community [doesn’t] see a lot of the men’s side of gymnastics, and here I am, trying to represent and do something cool here,” he said. “The sport is super fun. It should have style, it should have the next level ability. That's what i work on every day.”
The men’s artistic gymnastics program will include six apparatus including floor exercise, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar.
Pommel horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik did his job at the Paris Olympics on Saturday, nailing his one routine and then focusing on cheering teammates.
With no room for mistake and about 45 seconds to make an impression on judges, the Penn State alum — who does not compete on other apparatuses — not only delivered, he excelled.
“It went really well today, I handled the nerves very well,” Nedoroscik said. “I worked my whole life up to those 45 seconds.”
Competing at his first Olympics, the 25-year-old former pommel horse world champion was so good during qualification that he edged two-time Olympic champion Max Whitlock of Britain with a 15.200 to his British rival’s 15.166.
Both men will compete again in the apparatus’ final Monday.
There will also be individual competitions for each apparatus.
