Stanford hit the jackpot in this year's recruiting sweepstakes, landing three current members on the Junior National Team. Brandon Briones, Riley Loos and JR Chou will add to last year's class that included Brody Malone, Curran Phillips and Ian Gunther. All told, the Cardinal have signed four National Team members the last two recruiting cycles. Briones is easily the nation's top decorated Junior, sweeping the 2018 AA titles at JO Nationals and U.S. Championships, thus earning a trip to represent Team USA at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires (Gold-VT, 4th-AA). This group guarantees the Cardinal will be [...more]
Russia's Artur Dalaloyan (87.598) won a tie-breaker over China's Xiao Ruoteng (87.598) to earn his country's first World Championships AA gold medal since 1999. His fellow countryman Nikita Nagornyy (86.331) took the bronze. The exciting contest ended exactly like every all-around competition should... On the final event (HB). The top-5 finishers had legitimate designs on the top prize heading into the last rotation. The tie-breaker was determined by throwing out the lowest score for each gymnast. The Russians' two AA medals undoubtedly took the [...more]
China (256.634) won a nail-biter over Russia (256.585) to earn their first World team title since 2014. The Russians, a developing team powerhouse, led for most of the competition, but got edged out on the last routine. Nikita Nagornyy was unable to take advantage of China's Xiao Ruoteng's miscue on HB to win the title, just missing out by less than half a tenth. China's powerful PB lineup, led by Zou Jingyuan (16.20), proved to be the difference, as they bested the rest of the field by almost [...more]
Team USA cruised to a 4th-place finish at the 2018 Doha World Gymnastics Championships. Led by all-arounders Sam Mikulak and Yul Moldauer, the American team had no problem making the finals field of eight, despite a disastrous PH rotation. Mikulak was the only U.S. gymnast not to fall, and that feat earned him a spot in the PH finals. Competing with poise and confidence, Mikulak posted the third highest AA score (86.598) and also qualified to the event finals on FX,PH,PB and HB. He became the first American gymnast since Kurt Thomas [...more]
DOHA, QA -- It’s been a long day in Doha, Qatar at the 48th FIG Artistic World Championships. I spent hours upon hours watching MAG qualifications. I love qualifications, because in the beginning at least, everyone has hope.
This day has been a blur of Russian triple backs, David Belyavskiy getting 2 per countried out of the AA final, Epke Zonderland high bar, a bunch of people falling off the PH, Oliver Hegi bouncing off the high bar with his jaw (he’s OK), Oleg Verniaiev parallel bars, Dragulescu not [...more]
Sam Mikulak (174.45) and Yul Moldauer (169.95) will lead a five-man World Team squad at next month's World Men's Gymnastics Championships in Doha, Qatar. A two-day selection camp competition was held over the weekend to determine the fate of eight gymnasts. Mikulak easily topped the field, posting the best scores on four of six events (FX,PH,PB,HB), outlasting Moldauer by 4.5 points. The two gymnasts earned automatic [...more]
An article entitled "The Future of Men's Gymnastics Is Not Well-Balanced" recently appeared in the New York Times. The fluff piece fed into the failed narrative that is part of the reason for the sport's relative unpopularity. The worst part of it was the reference to a lack of a "Magic Mike effect." The last time I looked, none of the major men's sports (Olympics or otherwise) are marketed via such an "effect." It does not exist. The only time in sports history when Magic and Mike coexisted as a marketing force was in the late '80s and early '90s -- Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. The double standard exhibited in the article is typical, of course. The author seems dumbfounded as to why Men's Gymnastics has not "captured the imagination of American spectators with the "male ogling" big business aspect inspired by [...more]
As evident from Day 1 competition, a six-for-six performance on Day 2 would absolutely guarantee Sam Mikulak his fifth U.S. championship. Mikulak left no doubt, punctuated by a stuck dismount on his final event (HB), he went six-for-six. His 87.75 on the day gave him a two-day total (172.90) that put him almost 5 points ahead of runner-up Yul Moldauer (168.15). Mikulak placed in the top 5 on all six events, winning additional titles on [...more]
Sam Mikulak (85.15), despite falls on HB and PH, easily took the first day lead. He led all Seniors in scoring on FX (14.75) and PB (14.30). A six-for-six performance on Saturday night will likely deliver him his 5th U.S. all-around title. Co-favorite Yul Moldauer (82.70) was never quite in sync most of the night, and ended up in 6th place. Akash Modi (84.10) sits in 2nd place by virtue of his four top-5 finishes. He was clean and consistent throughout. Allan Bower (83.85) led the field for three rotations, [...more]
New Level 10 Junior Elite AA champions were crowned at the 2018 Men's JO Nationals Gymnastics Championships. Brandon Briones (140.15) tallied the highest two-day total among all the Level 10s to add another national title to his resume. Briones, last year's 16-year-old division winner, outlasted Riley Loos (138.10), Crew Bold (135.60), Dylan Young (135.10) and Jack Freeman (133.25). He added event titles on SR, PB and HB to complete his [...more]
