MINNEAPOLIS — There were many days over the past year and a half when it looked like Brody Malone’s gymnastics career might be over. The 2021 Olympian from northwest Georgia badly injured his knee during a meet in Germany.
The year ahead brought surgeries, endless rehab, a cross-country move and more rest than the active 24-year-old ever wanted.
Through it all, Malone never lost sight of his Olympic dream.
“You’ve got to wake up every day and tell yourself, this is what I’m doing,” said Malone, who is from Rockmart. “I’ve got a goal in mind. I’ve got to make sure that I do everything I can today to better myself for tomorrow, and then for the next day, the next day, and then to be fully prepared to compete at this level.”
All that paid off on Saturday when Malone was named to his second Olympic team following two days of competition at the trials in Minneapolis. The 24-year-old improved his scores nearly across the board on Day 2 and ultimately tallied a two-day score of 170.3 points to finish just 0.2 points behind the winner Fred Richard.
Asher Hong, Paul Juda and Stephen Nederosik round out the U.S. team, while Shane Wiskus and Khoi Young will join the group in Paris as alternates. A U.S. women’s team will be named Sunday.
“With everything that I’ve gone through with my leg, it’s just been a battle to get back to where I’m at,” said Malone, who was Team USA’s top all-around gymnast in Tokyo. “But I constantly leaned on God and on my teammates and my coaches and all the medical staff, so I’m super grateful and thankful for everyone who’s helped me get back to this point.”
Malone became the country’s top male gymnast with his breakout first national title in 2021, and he cemented that status with his 2022 world title on high bar, while also finishing fourth in the all-around there.
However, he wasn’t with the U.S. squad in Antwerp, Belgium, last October when it won world championships bronze. It was the first team gold medal for the American men at a global championship since they also won bronze at the 2014 worlds.
Seven months earlier, in March 2023, Malone was at a competition in Germany when his high bar dismount went awry. The awkward landing resulted in a dislocated knee, fractured tibia and torn ligaments, requiring three surgeries and nearly a year of rehab.
Brett McClure, the U.S. men’s high-performance director, was next to Malone when he fell and wasn’t sure he’d ever do gymnastics again.
Slowly but surely, he clawed his way back.
A 10-time NCAA champion during his time at Stanford, Malone left his post-collegiate training base in the Bay Area to move to EVO Gymnastics in Florida. By January, he was ready to compete at a small meet in Texas. It wasn’t until four weeks ago, at the U.S. championships also in Texas, that he did his first all-around.
He announced his return there with a convincing win over Richard, last year’s world all-around bronze medalist. That set up a showdown between the low-key Georgian and the flashy University of Michigan — and TikTok — star.
With a contingent of family and friends from Rockmart in attendance, Malone barely changed his expression over two days of gymnastics this week, even as his peers eagerly played in to the enthusiastic Olympic trials crowd. From apparatus to apparatus, whether nailing his routine or not, Malone remained steadfastly stone faced.
A strong start Thursday came undone by some mistakes on floor exercise — the last event he started training against post-injury — and pommel horse, allowing Richard to take the lead at the break.
Malone then opened Saturday’s competition with a performance he’d like to forget on his best event, high bar. He dropped to the floor after failing to re-grasp the bar on an early release move, then lost momentum on one of his swings and ended up having to dismount from the wrong side.
His score of 13.15 was more than a point lower than on Night 1.
Things could only go up from there. And they did.
Malone bounced back with an improved scores on floor, horse, rings and vault, while tying his parallel bars score. The run was almost enough to catch Richard.
Richard earned his spot on the Olympic team automatically by winning the all-around and placing top three in three events — winning high bar and parallel bars, and finishing third on floor. Malone ended up top six across each apparatus, though top three only on high bar and vault.
A selection committee, using a new system with an emphasis on numbers to avoid subjectivity, determined the four other gymnasts who will compete in Paris next month.
“I felt pretty sure that I was on the team, but when they came out and started announcing it, my heart started going like this,” Malone said, pumping his fist to his chest. “So it was definitely a little bit nervous.”
Even more so when they waited to call his name last.
“It kind of scared me a little bit,” he said, smiling. “But I was just super happy. I’m over the moon. I’m just ready to get back in the gym and start getting ready to go over to Paris.”
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