Frederick Richard is headed to his first Olympics after an all-around victory at the US gymnastics trials on Sunday, vowing the US men would deliver “some medals in Paris.”
The United States haven’t won an Olympic men’s team gymnastics medal since 2008.
Richard will spearhead the effort to end that drought alongside Brody Malone, Paul Juda, Asher Hong and Stephen Nedoroscik.
To book an automatic spot, Richard also had to finish in the top three on at least three of the six apparatus at trials and he got the job done — wowing the Target Center crowd in winning the high bar. He also topped the parallel bars standings and was third in floor exercise.
His all-around total of 170.50 was just two-tenths of a point better than Malone, who returned from a career-threatening knee injury last year to win a third US national championship earlier this month.
Malone had his difficulties this week in Minneapolis, but he never looked in doubt of making a second straight Olympic team, which was filled out by selectors based on results of the US championships as well as trials in a complicated computation aimed at maximizing scoring potential at the Games.
Third-placed all-around finisher Shane Wiskus, a Tokyo Olympian, missed out as fourth-placed Juda and fifth-placed Hong, who were both on the bronze medal-winning team at last year’s worlds, made it.
The fifth spot went to pommel horse specialist Nedoroscik, a four-time national champion in the event who boasts a degree of difficulty in his routines that could prove valuable on the international stage.
The trials conclude on Sunday with four-time Olympic gold medallist Simone Biles poised to book a third trip to the Games.
The women’s all-around winner gains an automatic spot on the team. Biles led the standings on 58.90 points after Friday’s opening night, with Jordan Chiles, part of the US silver medal-winning team in Tokyo, in second on 56.400 and Tokyo all-around gold medallist Suni Lee in third on 56.025.
