Monday at the Summer Olympics in Paris, the United States won the bronze medal in the men's gymnastics team competition. That's largely due to the performances of two athletes from Massachusetts.
This is the first time since 2008 the men's team won a medal. Stoughton's Frederick Richard was a standout for the U.S. He earned the squad's top scores in the floor exercise (14.466), parallel bars (14.566) and the horizontal bar (14.833).
With the competition winding down, the hopes for a medal for the U.S. all came down to Worcester’s Stephen Nedoroscik. Prior to the Olympics, he told NEPM, “I never like to say that we're definitely going to medal. But I'll tell you what — we have a very good chance of medaling."
And he turned out to be right.
Nedoroscik turned in a clutch performance, scoring 14.866—which was tied for the second-best score registered by any athlete Monday in Paris in the pommel horse.
Nedoroscik is a former world champion in the event, but he missed out on making the U.S. team for the previous Olympics in Tokyo three years ago. He said before the games he tried to learn from that disappointment.
“I'm just so honored and proud to be representing Team USA. It is a dream come true, but I feel like these last three years have taught me so much about staying with the sport, staying motivated, and, you know, it's all worth it in the end,” Nedoroscik said.
It is also the first Olympic appearance for Stoughton’s Frederick, who has immerged as something of the face of the U.S. men’s Olympic contingent.
By about a half point, Japan ended up winning the gold medal Monday, edging China, which picked up the silver.
There are still more opportunities for the U.S. men to earn medals in gymnastics. The all-around competition and the individual finals for each discipline are still to come over the next week.
