Brody Malone, Sam Mikulak lead US men’s gymnastics team for Tokyo 2020

The U.S. men’s gymnastics team for Tokyo 2020 is set, with 2021 NCAA and U.S. all-around champion Brody Malone, two-time Olympian and 2018 World medalist Sam Mikulak, 2017 World medalist and two-time NCAA all-around champion Yul Moldauer, and 2019 World team member Shane Wiskus comprising the main team.

Pommel horse specialist Alec Yoder was selected for the U.S. men’s plus one individual berth that Paul Juda clinched for his country earlier this month at the Pan American Championships.

Malone and Moldauer automatically qualified to the main 4-person team thanks to their all-around performances at Olympic Trials, going 1-2 in the standings, respectively, after two days of competition.

Mikulak, Wiskus, and Yoder were selected by the Men’s Program Committee (MPC) after a brief deliberation following the conclusion of competition on Saturday afternoon.

Stanford gymnast Malone dominated the field at trials with his lethal combination of difficulty, execution, and trademark even-keeled personality, winning the meet with a 171.600 – three points ahead of second-place finisher Moldauer – and winning high bar with a 29.250 (14.450/14.800).

“What a stud, huh!?” Men’s High Performance Director Brett McClure said about Malone after the team announcement. “He competed with ice in his veins. He just looked unshakeable. I was watching high bar about to fall out of my seat on every single release move… I think he’s one of the guys that really benefitted from an extra year and was able to get on track and start pushing on that throttle.”

Moldauer and day one second-place finisher Wiskus went back and forth in the standings on day two, with the former ultimately finishing second thanks in large part to his clean high bar set that included a stuck dismount to a roaring applause from the audience.

“For me, I like looking at the scores, and I like feeling the pressure because it’s always good practice,” Moldauer said about the back and forth with Wiskus. “I knew that me, Shane, and Sam were going to be close throughout the whole entire meet, and I just took it as a challenge.”

The former Oklahoma Sooner and current 5280 gymnast clinched his automatic berth by way of finishing second in the standings with a 168.600 and finishing in the top three on at least three of the six events – floor (29.050), pommel horse (28.350), rings (28.200), and parallel bars (28.950).

Mikulak is the undisputed leader of this Olympic Team thanks to his wealth of experience, but after falling on pommel horse in the final rotation of the meet, the 28-year-old was worried he would be named an alternate for his third and final Olympics.

“The whole time pommel horse was in my mind, like was that the one moment that just blew it for me,” Mikulak said about the team announcement. “Luckily, they waited to put Shane last when they called the names, so they did me third… I was expecting that they would announce Shane before either me or Brandon [Briones]… All of a sudden that moment came, and I was like, ‘Oh my god. I actually did it.'”

While Mikulak was most worried the MPC would choose Stanford gymnast Briones instead of him after the latter hit 12-12 of his routines at trials, he knew Wiskus was “locked in for sure.”

“Once they called my name, I knew at that moment Shane was also going to go,” Mikulak said of his USOPTC teammate.

The NCAA all-around silver medalist finished third with a 168.150, including second on parallel bars and a redemptive third on high bar after suffering three scary falls on the event just a few weeks ago at U.S. Championships.

Wiskus has had arguably the most tumultuous journey to making the team, having to deal with his NCAA team, the Minnesota Gophers, being cut from the school’s varsity roster and splitting his time between there and Colorado, where he now trains at the United States Olympic Paralympic Training Center.

“I’m just overwhelmed,” Wiskus said about getting to this moment. “I mean you can’t make this stuff up. I go from season getting cut [due to COVID] to practicing in the yard and practicing alone at local gyms and then finally getting back on campus. Then they cut our program, and then I had to move. It’s just like one thing after another… I’ve been through the wringer, and I told myself that I’ve been through enough, and I’m ready to show what I can do at this competition.”

The MPC’s toughest decision was selecting just one individual event specialist to the team, with Yoder ultimately coming out on top ahead of rings specialist and eventual alternate Alex Diab.

McClure said Yoder’s start value on horse, consistency, and ability to contend for an Olympic medal was ultimately the deciding factor between him and Diab.

Yoder, who is 6-6 hitting his horse set at U.S. meets this season, attributes his success to being prepared.

“I think pressure is what you feel when you’re unprepared,” Yoder said. “I don’t look at these moments as pressure; I look at them as opportunity.”

The alternates for the U.S. men’s Olympic Team are Briones, Akash Modi, Allan Bower, Cameron Bock, and Diab.

You can relive day two of the 2021 U.S. Championships by reading our live blog from the men’s session here. Click here for full results.

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