Just six hours following the conclusion of the 2024 Olympic Opening Ceremonies in Paris, men’s gymnastics kicked off at the Games with the first of three subdivisions of competition. Twelve nations also had team scores, where the top eight countries qualified to the team final.

Teams Who Exceeded Expectations

China

After facing heavy criticism for their selection of the team, team China looked simply unstoppable during qualifying. A nation notorious for making mistakes during the first day of competition completely flipped a switch this time around.

Ironically enough, their massive 263.028 team total, which led the field by 2.434 over second-place Japan, was derived essentially from just three key members: Zhang Boheng, Zou Jingyuan and Xiao Ruoteng. Their other team members include Liu Yang and Su Weide, both of whom only provided two counting scores for the Chinese team. Yang, the reigning Olympic Champion on rings, is phenomenal there - but that’s likely the only event he’ll compete in the team final competition. It will be interesting to see how China decides to use Weide in the Finals, given his abrupt entrance to the team (and shaky routines from the first day) following an injury to Sun Wei in podium training.

Aforementioned Boheng was not only the leader of the Chinese team, he was the best gymnast we’ve seen thus far in Paris. A staggering 88.597 all-around total had him comfortably qualifying in the lead position. Boheng finished in the top 10 on five of the six apparatus, earning a spot to three event finals as well. Then there’s Jingyuan, who displayed three masterful routines during this competition. Beginning on rings, he surprised many with a 15.300, including an impressive 8.900 execution score. This lead the field, and he’ll give a serious threat to his teammate Yang for the rings gold medal. Just two rotations later, Jingyuan presented yet another piece of art on the parallel bars. The three-time parallel bar world champion and reigning Olympic champion is likely the greatest of all time on this apparatus. He routinely scores above 9.2 in execution, and performs a 6.9 difficulty. He received a breathtaking 16.200 in qualifying, and anything close to that number should assure him yet another Olympic gold medal. Jingyuan finished his competition with a 14.600 on pommel horse, a tally that team China would love to repeat in the team final competition.

Rounding out their squad is ever-consistent Xiao Ruoteng, who competed the all-around and qualified to the finals in fourth. Ruoteng’s biggest value to this team is the ability to perform all events, though his true strengths include pommel horse, vault and parallel bars. 

Great Britain

Similarly to China, Great Britain were also questioned by their strategy heading into these Games. Many thought that, rather than prioritizing a team medal, they sent athletes with hopes to medal in individual event finals - which can be quite risky. Well, the British had a remarkable day in qualifying.

Consistency from Jake Jarman and Joe Fraser were crucial to the team winding up qualifying in third place, a medal position which team GB would be enthralled by. They do have lower difficulty than Ukraine and Team USA, though performances like today only increase confidence in their chances for a team medal. In addition to this team standing, the British qualified at least one member to four of the six event finals, with two finalists on both floor and vault.

Jarman and Fraser both qualified to the all-around final as well, the 5th and 6th highest scores respectively. Individually, Jarman showcased an enormous floor routine with a 6.6 difficulty score, finishing in first with a 14.966. On vault, the reigning world champion once again landed a Yonekura (6.0) cleanly. Jarman will hope to limit landing deductions on his Dragulescu (5.6) in order to boost his 14.699 average and end on the podium. Joining Jarman in the vault final is countryman Harry Hepworth, who qualified via two superb vaults, ending in second position with a 14.766 average. Vault event finals will be one to watch, as all finalists were separated by just 0.250 - meaning it could be any combination of athletes who end with a medal.

Another medal hope for team GB is double-reigning Olympic pommel horse champion Max Whitlock. Whitlock breezed through his pommel routine yet again, placing third with a 15.166. Yes, all pommel horse finals are unpredictable, though a hit for Whitlock should have him on the podium once again, perhaps for a third-consecutive Olympic gold medal. 

Canada 

Gymnastics Canada has produced its first ever men’s team to the Olympic final! Competing in the first subdivision and totalling 247.794, it was evident the race for a team final berth would be tight all day. Canada is a young team, and for these games their lone focus was to produce a team to the final. Check that box! In addition, they also have two all-around finalists in Felix Dolci and Rene Cournoyer, undoubtedly the leaders of the squad. Dolci shows lots of promise for the future, yet even currently he qualified to these games as Canada’s top all-arounder. Cournoyer has some veteranship, being the lone male Canadian to attend the Tokyo Olympics. The biggest question for this team, at least heading into the summer, was their pommel horse lineup. The weakness on pommel horse was a huge reason for the selection in Zachary Clay, who proved his selection and nailed a 13.733, by far the highest mark among Canadians. This mark was extremely important, considering Canada narrowly defeated the next two teams (Turkey and Netherlands).

Just 0.499 separated these three teams, though only one spot was available to advance. This battle for the final was arguably the tightest race in qualifying, and Canada earned its selection. From here, they’ll strive for a top five position and hope to keep momentum heading into the next quad. 

Teams Who Met Expectations

Japan 

All-in-all, Japan looked very strong as a team throughout the competition. Though it surprisingly wasn’t because of the performance from the reigning Olympic all-around champion Hashimoto Daiki. Instead it was Oka Shinnosuke leading the Japanese, scoring 86.865 to qualify to the all-around final in second.

Heading into the games, many viewed the all-around final as a two-man battle for gold (Boheng vs Hashimoto), and then a tier gap and a race for third between many different athletes. Oka not only looked like the leader in that tier, he might have entered himself into a step above by defeating his teammate Hashimoto in qualifying. Another all-around performance like this and he’ll certainly end with a medal, the question is merely which color.

As a group, Japan has five individual event finalists, two on both parallel bars and high bar, and another on floor. Sugino Takaaki has serious hopes for podium spots on both pommel horse and high bar, placing top four on both apparatus’ in qualifying. Though impressive totals, Japan was hoping for a few more individual event finalists, and obviously have dreams to end on the top of the podium as a team. Hashimoto himself can improve by important margins on many events, especially high bar where he took a fall. Japan compares to China very closely in difficulty, meaning execution scores will need to rise in order to reach their goal of becoming Olympic team champions like they were in Rio de Janeiro.

Ukraine

The competition started rough for Ukraine, who received two scores in the 12s on their first apparatus, high bar. Things slowly turned around for the group throughout the competition, with a few excellent routines yet a few mistakes on the next three events each. Then came the fifth rotation, vault.

The team is notoriously strong there - featuring Igor Radivilov and Nazar Chepurnyi. Radivilov has four world medals on vault and won bronze at the 2012 Olympics. Chepurnyi is the current world bronze medalist on this apparatus,  and qualified in first to the vault final after sticking his Dragulescu and displaying a two-vault average of 14.833. Ukraine’s team vault total was a monstrous 44.632, the highest among any country. They followed it up with a 45.032 on parallel bars, led by Oleg Verniaiev’s 15.266. The team ended qualifying in fourth place. Verniaiev had a couple errors, specifically on floor and high bar, though he excelled with his hit routines elsewhere. He’s also into the pommel horse final with a 15.033.

Ukraine has the difficulty to end with a podium placement in the team final, though they’ll need more consistent routines from the likes of Verniaiev and Illia Kovtun. Kovtun is the reigning world silver medalist in the all-around, though he finished 11th in qualifying. 

Teams That Fell Below Expectations

USA

It wasn’t a complete disaster for the United States, though they’re certainly disappointed. Mistakes from Brody Malone kept him out of any individual event or all-around finals, and the nation only has one event finalist. That man is Stephen Nedoroscik, an athlete only in the Olympics because his pommel horse helps the U.S. so drastically.

Nedoroscik’s routine was certainly the highlight for Team USA, a final score of 15.200 to qualify in a tie for first to the final. Another positive the U.S. can take from qualifying is the performance of Paul Juda. Not only did Juda perform well, his international scores compared very closely to how he was scored domestically. Given the lower difficulty, his execution scores are invaluable to team USA.

A surprise to many, it’s Paul Juda into the all-around final from the U.S. Joining him will be Frederick Richard, the University of Michigan student who won bronze at last year’s world championships in the all-around. Richard avoided major errors, though he can be a little sharper on nearly every apparatus. His all-around total was 83.498, down from as high as 85.600 that we saw in the U.S. Olympic Trials. Scores do reset heading into the team final, but a repeat performance will have the U.S. ending in 5th place for the fourth straight Olympics. There is plenty of room for improvement, mainly from Brody Malone, that can give Team USA a boost into team medal contention. This year’s team still has tremendous capability to earn its first team medal at the Games since 2008.

One interesting note is they will start the team final on rings, ending on pommel horse. If things pan out the way the U.S. hopes, Stephen Nedoroscik may have the chance to hit a routine and earn the nation a spot on the podium, much like pommel-specialist Alexander Artemev did in Beijing. 

Turkey

Turkey set high standards by vying for a spot in the team final competition. They came within 0.235, less than a quarter of a point away from reaching that goal. A heartbreaking 9th place finish came from mistakes on floor, high bar, and especially pommel horse. The Turkish only competed three routines on this apparatus, and had to count a 12.766 from Ahmet Onder and an 11.766 from Emre Dodanli. It felt like an emotional rollercoaster for the team, greatly impressing in some places but faltering elsewhere.

Highlights for Turkey included Adem Asil on rings and vault, who had the highest single-vault score of the day after sticking a Ri Se Gwang II to earn a massive 15.266. Though shortly afterwards, Asil dropped his hands on his second vault, a mistake so costly it dropped him from qualifying to the vault final. Asil did qualify for the rings final, where he ties for the most difficult routine in the field (6.4). The other finalist for Turkey is Ferhat Arican on parallel bars, who also ties for the highest difficulty in that individual event (6.9). The Tokyo bronze medalist will have yet another chance to earn Turkey an Olympic medal with a cleanly hit routine. 

The Men’s Team final is scheduled to take place on July 29th . A full schedule of the medal events is available in the Neutral Deductions Olympic Watch Guide.

Article by: Aiden Whitehead

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