Top men’s gymnast Brody Malone, the reigning U.S. men’s All-Around champion, is out of the All-Around competition after struggling during qualifications.
Malone fell three times — twice on horizontal bar, once on pommel horse — during preliminaries on Saturday to finish with 79.598 points. He is now 11th in the first subdivision; the top 24 gymnasts from across three subdivisions advance to the finals.
Only two gymnasts from each Olympic committee can advance to the All-Around finals. Given that Malone finished well behind Olympic teammates Frederick Richard and Paul Juda, who finished third and fourth, respectively, he will not advance to the finals.
Malone underwent multiple surgeries for a gruesome knee injury sustained last year, but recovered in time to win his third national All-Around title in June. Malone performed incredibly well at Team USA trials, finishing second in the All-Around, just behind Richard.
But on Saturday, he struggled, receiving at 0.3 deduction on vault and earning just a 6.033 on horizontal bar, his best event and his highest difficulty. Malone finished fourth overall in the high bar at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but is now unlikely to make the finals for the event.
Malone’s only hope for the finals is to advance on an individual apparatus. He competed well on parallel bars, earning 14.533 points and finishing fourth in the subdivision; however, only the top eight from all three subdivisions will advance, meaning that an appearance at the finals is not guaranteed.
Source Agencies
