TEXAS — Brody Malone became a three-time all-around national champion at the US Gymnastics Championships in Fort Worth, Texas.
Malone was participating in the national championships for the first time since 2022 after working his way back from a fractured right leg, an injury he sustained in a World Cup event in Germany last year. He also shredded his meniscus and tore two ligaments in his right knee.
But he was back in business, maintaining a Day 1 lead by posting a total score of 172.300, Reuters reported.
Fred Richard came in second with a 170.250, while Khoi Young landed in third with a 169.550. Yul Moldauer and Shane Wiskus, who each finished with an overall score of 168.200, rounded out the top five.
Malone has won the men’s all-around national title in three of the past four years, only missing out on it in 2023 due to his leg injury.
He has become an expert on many things over the last 15 months while recovering from a knee injury that threatened to derail his chances of returning to the Olympics. Patience. Faith. Diligence. Pain tolerance. The efficacy of certain types of knee braces.
The 23-year-old gymnast is well-versed in all of them following an arduous rehab that tested him in ways he never imagined.
So yes, Malone’s surgically repaired right knee was bothering him at the end of the US Championships. His ankles and lots of other things, too.
Still, it was kind of hard to tell underneath a smile that was equal parts joy and relief following two days at the US Championships in which he served a reminder that – when healthy – he remains the standard-bearer for the US men’s program until further notice.
“With everything I´ve gone through, to be able to come back, make a comeback like I have and be competitive enough to be on the top again, it feels amazing,” Malone said according to AP.
The former rodeo rider from northwest Georgia shredded his knee at a meet in Germany in March 2023. It took three surgeries to repair the damage, the final one coming last summer.
He had originally hoped to be ready to compete in the all-around by the Olympic trials later this month in Minneapolis.
The timeline was sped up a bit as he healed, and he arrived in Texas intent on not just being happy to be there. He came to win, then went out and easily put distance between himself and the rest of the group hoping for an invitation to Paris next month.
“It just shows Brody is a dog, number one,” Richard said. “So much respect for him, so much respect for him to just come back and dominate. He´s definitely going to push me in the gym because I don´t like to take second. So just wait till trials.”
Richard, 20, and third-place finisher Khoi Young, 21, are part of an American group looking to make an impact in Paris.
The US finished a distant seventh in Tokyo. Their sudden rise over the last three years – fueled in part by a bonus-scoring system installed in domestic meets in 2022 and 2023 designed to get them to attempt more difficult skills – has the US a legit medal contender in Paris, especially with defending champion Russia out of the mix.
Defending national champion Asher Hong, 2020 Olympians Shane Wiskus and Yul Moldauer, pommel horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik, Michigan teammates Paul Juda and Cameron Bock and Stanford’s Colt Walker will also head to Minneapolis at the end of June in the mix.
Hong, who won the US title a year ago at 19, struggled on Thursday and failed to take a significant step forward on Saturday, symbolic of a competition where several of the leading contenders left significant room for improvement heading into Olympic trials.
The Americans believe this group is deeper than more recent quads, to the point that Young – a production design major at Stanford – has been putting together spreadsheets with different versions of the team trying to come up with the one that would maximize the US’s medal potential.
Young’s name is on some versions of the teams. It’s not on others.
