On Saturday morning, after Stephen Nedoroscik finished his pommel horse routine, Paul Juda pointed to Nedoroscik’s forearm: “You’ve got goosebumps,’’ he said. After the men’s gymnastics team’s final, Nedoroscik gave them to everyone else.
Brought to Paris to nail one routine and one routine only, the pommel horse specialist delivered in the most dramatic of Olympic fashions. The last man up for the U.S., Nedoroscik had to wait the entirety of the meet – more than two hours- before walking up to the pommel horse. As China, the leader after five rotations, fell repeatedly on the horizontal bar, Nedoroscik stepped up to give the U.S. not only a shot at a medal, but perhaps waltz into a silver.
As he finished his routine with only the slightest of form breaks, Nedoroscik pumped his arms as the crowd erupted in chants of USA, flashing flags around Bercy Arena. As he walked off, his teammates lifted him up as if he’d just won well… a team medal.
Their arms slung around each other’s shoulders, Team USA watched the scoreboard first for Nedoroscik’s score – a 14.866 – and then waited for the last competitor, China’s Zhang Boheng to finish his routine on horizontal bar.
Though Boheng did enough to move China back to silver behind Japan, the U.S. still got what it came for – its first team medal in 16 years. Their celebration was every bit as jubilant as the gold medalists, and deservedly so.
Author : usa-news
Publish date : 2024-07-29 22:24:24
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.