PARIS, France — China surged to the top of Olympic men's gymnastics qualifying Saturday, putting together a team total of 263.028 while competing next to rival Japan.
The five-man Chinese team, missing veteran Sun Wei after he was injured during training Thursday, used a series of spectacular routines on rings and parallel bars to stamp itself as the favorite heading into Monday's final.
Japan, the reigning world champion, dealt with a couple of uncharacteristic mistakes by current world and Olympic champion Daiki Hashimoto and finished at 260.594.
While the 22-year-old will get a chance to defend his title in the all-around, he won't on high bar — his signature event — after stumbling during his dismount. Hashimoto appeared to be dealing with right shoulder discomfort for much of the afternoon and was tended to by a Team Japan trainer shortly after finishing up on still rings.
Hashimoto is currently third in the all-around through two subdivisions at 85.064, behind teammate Shinnousuke Oka (86.865) and China's Zhang Boheng (88.597).
The scores will reset for in the team finals, though the only real question is who will join them on the podium with defending champion Russia ineligible due to the war in Ukraine.
Britain is in third after topping the first subdivision with 256.561. Ukraine overcame a nightmarish set on high bar to slip past the U.S. and into fourth at 253.893, with the Americans fifth at 253.229.
The British insist they don't have any sort of rivalry with the U.S., even if the two programs have spent the better part of a decade jockeying for position at nearly every major international event.
Britain sent a very real if unspoken message: it is more than capable of grabbing a bronze to go with the one it somewhat unexpectedly won in London a dozen years ago.
Jake Jarman's 84.897 all-around total was just ahead of teammate Joe Fraser while Max Whitlock — in his fourth and final Games — fought off the jitters he knew would come to score a 15.133 on pommel horse and give Britain plenty of momentum.
"A lot of people have asked me that question in terms of ‘How’s it feel to be above the U.S.?’" Whitlock said. “To be honest, you take it with a pinch of salt. I think it’s really important to kind of just think about our job.”
One that Whitlock and his four teammates did extremely well over two-plus hours in front of an audience that included U.S. first lady Jill Biden, who clapped along with American star Frederick Richard's floor routine and posed for pictures with a somewhat subdued team afterward.
While Richard called the experience “pretty sick,” he regretted not being able to show Biden a “cooler” routine after he scored a 13.833, a bit below what he knows he'll need in order to medal in the all-around finals next week.
Richard wasn't the only one. The U.S. arrived in Paris hoping to earn a team medal for the first time since a bronze in Beijing 16 years ago. While that certainly remains on the table, Richard & Co. will need to be sharper in the finals.
Brody Malone, who returned from a catastrophic leg injury in March 2023 to make his second Olympic team, fell once on pommel horse and twice on high bar and likely will miss all-around and event finals.
The second miscue on high bar — a high-risk, high-reward event in which Malone won gold at the 2022 world championships — forced the Americans to use Asher Hong's 12.600, one of the reasons the U.S. ended up 3.322 behind Britain.
“It was definitely not perfect,” U.S. high performance director Brett McClure said. “And it was a few too many mistakes. I feel leading into team finals we need to clean some things up.”
Malone's miscues opened the door for Paul Juda. The 23-year-old doesn't do the most difficult gymnastics, focusing more on execution to stay competitive. McClure put Juda up first on five of the six events, a position that requires more than a little mental toughness because it can set the tone for an entire rotation.
Juda seems uniquely suited for the position.
“I just knew that if they put me first, that I earned that myself,” said Juda, a Michigan student who says he has worked extensively with a sports psychologist over the last couple of years. “And with my team behind me ... I was ready for it.”
When Malone faltered, it created an opportunity to compete in the all-around finals that few — perhaps Juda himself at some point — saw coming.
“I think today would have been one of those things where I got to say I did all-around at the Olympics, but then to hopefully be making an all-around final, I think that’s the cooler thing,” Juda said. “And, you know, the coolest thing is yet to come.”
Qualifying continues later Saturday, with longtime rivals and gold medal favorites Japan and China competing in the second of three subdivisions. The top eight team finishers advance to the team finals on Monday.
The one superpower that won't be in the mix is Russia. The defending Olympic champions will miss the Paris Games as part of the fallout of the war with Ukraine. Russia's absence creates an opportunity for the U.S., Britain and perhaps Ukraine to reach the podium.
“If they were in, you'd like to think that they'd be up near the top,” Whitlock said. “So with them not, of course, there’s a little bit of (a better opportunity to medal) but only a little bit.”
