Olympics Recap

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics have come and gone, albeit a year behind schedule, where a handful of NCAA athletes competed with multiple qualifying to event finals.  Qualifications featured the likes of Stanford’s David Jessen, competing in his second Olympics representing the Czech Republic, as well as Michigan’s Uche Uke, Nigeria’s first ever Olympic gymnast.  Ohio State Alumni, Misha Koudinov, also competed as a representative from New Zealand.  The United States team of Sam Mikulak, Brody Malone, Shane Wiskus, and Yul Moldauer finished fifth in the team finals behind the powerhouses of Russia, Japan, and China.

In a way, this Olympics felt like the passing of the torch from the best American gymnast of the 2010s, Sam Mikulak, to the one that will likely anchor this team heading forward, Brody Malone.  The pair of them both made the all-around final, with Malone notching a top-10 finish after posting an 84.465, while Mikulak finished in twelfth with an 83.164.  Mikulak capped off an incredible career, competing in the parallel bars event finals and finishing in sixth place with a 15.000.  Malone was near perfect in the high bar final, but a small error on a tak full left him in fourth place with a 14.200.  It was not the outcome he had hoped for, but the future is extremely bright for Stanford’s 21-year-old star.

Also making event finals were Oklahoma’s Yul Moldauer and Ohio State’s Alec Yoder.  Moldauer finished in sixth place on floor while Yoder also notched a sixth place finish on pommel horse, both in impressive fields.  The University of Illinois also had an olympic competitor, Tyson Bull, who became the first Australian gymnast to make an event final.  Bull finished in fifth place behind Brody Malone on high bar.