Sports
Brody Malone continues to defy expectations with strong start at gymnastics trials
![Brody Malone continues to defy expectations with strong start at gymnastics trials](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/dece10a/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2758x1448+0+53/resize/1200x630!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fc1%2F01%2Ff8dfc2ca467c8e411f4496d43d70%2Fus-trials-gymnastics-32175.jpg)
He shed the bulky knee brace strapped around his right leg, stuck his vault cold to open one of the biggest competitions of his life, and Brody Malone still didn’t crack a smile as he scurried off the mats at Target Center on Thursday.
Malone’s mission is far from done.
In second place after the first day of Olympic trials, the three-time U.S. champion is in a strong position to earn his second Olympic team berth with 85.100 points in the all-around. He trails 2023 world all-around bronze medalist Frederick Richard, who surged into the top spot in the final two rotations and finished with an 85.600.
The top all-around finisher locks in a coveted Olympic berth on the five-man team that will be announced Saturday (2 p.m. PDT, NBC). Malone, third-place finisher Shane Wiskus (84.300 points) and Yul Moldauer, who is tied for fifth (83.700), are vying for their second Olympic berths.
Brody Malone talks about his performance, including how he’s handling the nerves of the U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials. (Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)
An encore Olympic performance seemed improbable for Malone when he was on an operating table in Germany in March 2023.
Competing in the event finals at the DTB Pokal Team Challenge, Malone peeled off the high bar on his dismount and mangled his right knee. He was rushed to surgery, one of three procedures he needed to repair ligament tears, cartilage damage and a fractured tibial plateau. Brett McClure, USA Gymnastics men’s high performance director, was on the floor in the arena and didn’t think he would see Malone perform again.
Then the former Stanford star won his third U.S. championship this month in his first all-around performance in 17 months.
“Absolutely incredible,” McClure told reporters Wednesday. “It’s mind-blowing. Obviously from my position, high performance director, I want to just see him safely get through Olympic trials. That’s not good enough for him. He wants to go out there and win.”
Malone started with a triumphant vault in the first rotation, sticking his routine while competing without his knee brace for the first time. The brace is designed to push the joint inward while on floor and vault to reduce pain. But it was pushing against his shin and affecting his run. Competing without it marked another major milestone in his comeback.
“Sticking it was the cherry on top, for sure,” Malone said, finally smiling.
Malone’s only misstep came on pommel horse when he nearly slipped off the apparatus, but he muscled through the traveling element to stay on as the crowd exhaled. The slip-up allowed Richard and Asher Hong to jump briefly into a tie for first place over Malone, passing the veteran by just five-hundreths of a point after four rotations.
![Brody Malone competes on the still rings at the U.S. Olympic trials on Thursday.](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/bacc144/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5292x3528+0+0/resize/1200x800!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F80%2Fd8%2F4bb5cef144a3b09192305e0c6cf7%2Fus-trials-gymnastics-01667.jpg)
Brody Malone competes on the still rings at the U.S. Olympic trials on Thursday.
(Abbie Parr / Associated Press)
Hong, who won the all-around national championship in 2023 during Malone’s absence, bounced back from a 10th-place finish at the U.S. championship to finish Day 1 tied with 2023 world championships teammate Moldauer in fifth place (83.700). Moldauer slipped off the pommel horse in his opening routine but rallied with the night’s second-best parallel bars score of 15.150.
Stanford star Khoi Young, who won silver medals on vault and pommel horse at the world championships — a breakthrough event for the U.S. men, who claimed the bronze team medal — struggled on high bar and pommel horse and slipped to 12th.
The mistakes were uncharacteristic for the 21-year-old, who was the first American man to win multiple event medals at a world championships since 1979. Stanford coach Thom Glielmi said he’s never seen Young make those mistakes in practice, let alone competition.
But the trials are no normal meet.
“For a lot of us, it’s the biggest competition of our lives,” Malone said. “All the guys out there that haven’t made the Olympics before, this is their ticket to go. So I mean, of course the nerves are going to be going crazy. Even us that have been to the Olympics before, we want to go again, so the nerves are there for sure.”
Wiskus turned the nerves into energy, thanks to his home court advantage. The Spring Park, Minn., native is competing just 20 miles from his hometown. After a floor routine that pushed him from fourth to second in the standings, Wiskus held one hand to his ear to soak up the adulation from the fans. When he completed his final routine, finishing his rings performance with a small hop on the dismount, Wiskus clapped up a cloud of chalk dust, pumped his fist at the crowd and pounded his chest.
Normally the mild-mannered Midwesterner wouldn’t play to the crowd as much. Maybe when he was younger, an atmosphere like this would rattle him, Wiskus said. Hearing the roar from the crowd when he was introduced helped him let loose.
“I allowed myself to have some fun considering what could potentially be the last meet of my career,” the 25-year-old said.
With another strong performance Saturday, Wiskus could extend his career all the way to Paris.
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Sports
Aaron Rodgers makes appearance at UFC 303 amid Jets minicamp absence
![Aaron Rodgers makes appearance at UFC 303 amid Jets minicamp absence](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/Aaron-Rodgers3.jpg)
Aaron Rodgers made his first public appearance since the drama over his whereabouts while the New York Jets began mandatory minicamp earlier this month.
Rodgers was seen cageside at UFC 303 in Las Vegas on Saturday night. He was seen with his former Green Bay Packers teammate, tight end Marcedes Lewis. The veteran NFL player now plays for the Chicago Bears.
New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers during UFC 303 at T-Mobile Arena on June 29, 2024, in Las Vegas. (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
![Aaron Rodgers with Mercedes Lewis](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/1200/675/1d75dc5d-Aaron-Rodgers2.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Chicago Bears tight end Marcedes Lewis attend UFC 303 on June 29, 2024, in Las Vegas. (Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
The star quarterback has been absent from minicamp. Jets head coach Robert Saleh described it as an “unexcused absence,” which sparked a whirlwind of controversy from sports pundits in the New York City area.
Saleh tried to put all the hoopla to rest.
“Aaron and I are on the exact same page,” Saleh said earlier this month, via the New York Post. “There’s no issue between Aaron (and me]) or his teammates, for that matter. We addressed it (Tuesday). It’s more of an issue for everyone outside the building than it is inside. That’s about it.”
49ERS’ KYLE SHANAHAN HOPES TO REDUCE CHRISTIAN MCCAFFREY’S WORKLOAD NEXT SEASON
Buffalo Bills wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling, who also played with Rodgers in Green Bay, said on “The Herd” on Thursday that he had just worked out with the quarterback in Los Angeles.
“Me and Aaron have been great friends since I’ve been in Green Bay. I hit him up, told him I was coming out to L.A., and said, ‘Let’s run some routes,’” Valdes-Scantling said. “So, we got it in, went out to some high school, and ran some routes together. We’re good. It was good.”
![Aaron Rodgers at OTAs](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/1200/675/3876d221-Aaron-Rodgers.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Aaron Rodgers of the New York Jets during OTA Offseason Workouts at Atlantic Health Jets Training Center on June 4, 2024, in Florham Park, New Jersey. (Luke Hales/Getty Images)
Rodgers was at organized team activities earlier in the offseason.
Rodgers was the Jets’ biggest acquisition last year, but only played in four snaps before he tore his Achilles.
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Sports
U.S. gymnastics trials: Frederick Richard flips his way to Paris in all-around triumph
![U.S. gymnastics trials: Frederick Richard flips his way to Paris in all-around triumph](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7cb4a63/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4176x2193+0+257/resize/1200x630!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fea%2F80%2F2d875ad8425f8af112e355142cae%2Faptopix-us-trials-gymnastics-01669.jpg)
The man the internet knows as “Frederick Flips” will be flipping all the way to Paris.
Frederick Richard won the all-around at the U.S. Olympic trials on Saturday at Target Center with a two-day all-around score of 170.500 to earn his first Olympic berth. The 20-year-old rising junior at Michigan will lead a U.S. men’s team that’s ready to end a streak of three consecutive fifth-place Olympic finishes.
“Very realistic expectation is podium medals,” Richard said. “I don’t know which — bronze, silver or gold — which one it will be, but I know there will be one and we’ll do whatever it takes to get there.”
Richard, the reigning world all-around bronze medalist who also runs popular Instagram and TikTok pages with behind-the-scenes gymnastics content, already knows what it’s like to end a streak. He helped the United States to a bronze medal at the 2023 world championships, the team’s first world medal since 2014. Richard’s world champion teammates Paul Juda and Asher Hong will join him on the Olympic team in Paris along with second-place all-around finisher Brody Malone and pommel horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik.
The selection process, which mostly relies on a complex algorithm that computes scores from two-day competitions at U.S. championships and Olympic trials, was designed to maximize the team’s score in Olympic competition, where four athletes compete with three scores counting in the qualification round and three compete and all count during the team final. The math-heavy approach opened the door for Nedoroscik, who competed in just a single event.
The pommel horse specialist totaled 29.300 across the two days, which was second during the trials following Patrick Hoopes’ 29.450. But Nedoroscik had crunched the numbers from U.S. championships, where he led Hoopes by 0.775, and calculated that if he made a mistake, Hoopes would need a 15.100 to tie his three-score average. Hoopes finished with a 15.000 on Saturday.
“I knew going up for that dismount, I was just like please get this dismount, just please stick this landing,” Nedoroscik said. “I almost didn’t. And then in my head I was like, I think I made it.”
Nedorocik’s consistency might have been key to earning his coveted Olympic position over Khoi Young, the reigning world silver medalist on pommel horse. Young was named a traveling alternate, along with Shane Wiskus, who finished third in the all-around backed by a sold-out hometown crowd that cheered on the Spring Park, Minn., native.
Young needed to battle back from a 12th-place all-around finish after the first day. But the bigger problem was that the 21-year-old Stanford star scored just a lowly 11.650 on his signature event on Thursday. He redeemed himself Saturday with a 14.250 on the event, but still trailed behind Nedoroscik.
Stephen Nedoroscik knew 👏 the 👏assignment 👏
He calculated what he needed to make the Olympic team down to the tenth, based on three-score averages from championships and trials. How a specialist books a place in Paris: https://t.co/q2T0kmwZam pic.twitter.com/BZh0hbm4Rh
— Thuc Nhi Nguyen (@thucnhi21) June 29, 2024
Malone, who missed the competition in 2023 while recovering from a career-threatening knee injury, shook off a fall on high bar in the opening event Saturday. He finished just two-tenths behind Richard, highlighted by a second stuck vault in as many days of competition that solidified his second Olympic berth.
Hong’s only major misstep came on pommel horse, where one of his legs appeared to clip the horse during a flare element, sending him crashing to the mat. He slipped from second place in the all-around standings to fifth entering the final event. But the Stanford star left the selection committee with a final exclamation point to consider going into the meeting room by sticking his dismount on rings in the last rotation. His 14.700 was the highest score on the event across both days of competition.
The 20-year-old’s high-flying vault and huge difficulty on rings and floor symbolize a recent trend in U.S. men’s gymnastics to push for bigger skills to compete with world powers Japan and China. The strategy is working faster than expected, men’s high performance director Brett McClure said. He believed initially that the bold strategy wouldn’t truly take off until the 2028 Olympics. But a world bronze medal last year has the Americans on track for an early arrival in Paris.
“It’s doable,” Ruda said of ending the Olympic medal streak. “This team is the best team possible. … It’s been done, we broke the drought once and we’ve got so many returners that are going to have the exact same mindset.”
Sports
Caitlin Clark lauds childhood idol Diana Taurasi ahead of first WNBA matchup: 'One of the greatest players'
![Caitlin Clark lauds childhood idol Diana Taurasi ahead of first WNBA matchup: 'One of the greatest players'](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/Caitlin-Clark-smiles.jpg)
Diana Taurasi is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in WNBA history. Meanwhile, rookie Caitlin Clark has helped bring an unprecedented amount of attention to women’s basketball.
Clark and the Indiana Fever will faceoff with Taurasi and the Phoenix Mercury on Sunday. The game will mark Clark’s first opportunity to compete against Taurasi in the WNBA.
Clark was asked about her feelings leading up to the highly anticipated matchup with a player she grew up idolizing.
Caitlin Clark #22 of the Indiana Fever warms up before the game /ah at Wintrust Arena on June 23, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. (Quinn Harris/Getty Images)
“It’s incredible,” Clark told reporters on Saturday about Taurasi’s two-decade run in the league. “I don’t think people realize how hard that is to do.”
WNBA COMMISSIONER SCOFFS AT NOTION CAITLIN CLARK IS BEING TARGETED BY WNBA PLAYERS
Clark also said taking the court for a game against a player of Taurasi’s caliber was “a dream come true. You get to live out your dream while playing against the best.”
![Diana Taurasi vs Aces](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/05/1200/675/fa0f552a-Diana-Taurasi.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Diana Taurasi #3 of the Phoenix Mercury looks on during the game against the Las Vegas Aces on May 14, 2024 at Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. (David Becker/NBAE via Getty Images)
Clark went on to describe Taurasi as one of the WNBA’s all-time greats. “Obviously, she’s one of the greatest players our game has ever seen, the greatest scorer our game has ever seen,” Clark said.
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Despite Clark’s latest praise, a budding rivalry between the two high-profile players could be on the horizon.
When Taurasi was asked to share her thoughts on facing Clark for the first time, she delivered a brief response. “Yeah, it’ll be fun,” she said.
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In April, Taurasi was asked about what incoming WNBA rookies could expect. She proceeded to suggest that a rude awakening was in store.
“Look, SVP, reality is coming,” Taurasi told ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt during an appearance on SportsCenter on April 6. “There’s levels to this thing. And that’s just life. We all went through it. You see it on the NBA side, and you’re going to see it on this side. You look superhuman playing against 18-year-olds, but you’re going to (be playing against) some grown women that have been playing professional basketball for a long time.”
![Caitlin Clark dribbles](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/1200/675/caitlin-clark-2.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Caitlin Clark #22 of the Indiana Fever looks on during the game against the Seattle Storm on June 27, 2024 at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington. (Mollie Handkins/NBAE via Getty Images)
While the comments were about the rookie class as a whole, some believed the remarks were a direct jab at Clark, who dominated at the college basketball level.
Nevertheless, Taurasi and Clark also share some similarities. Taurasi is the WNBA’s career scoring leader, while no one scored more points at the NCAA Division I level than Clark. Both point guards are also strong 3-point shooters.
Taurasi is one of three players on the Mercury’s roster who will represent the US in Paris next month for the Olympics, joining Brittney Griner and guard Kahleah Copper. Team USA will be competing for a record eight consecutive Olympic gold medal.
The 2024 Olympic roster notably does not include any players who recently rose from the collegiate ranks. Clark’s exclusion from the roster sparked considerable debate. Her teammate and the league’s reigning rookie of the year, Aliyah Boston was also left off the roster.
The Fever and Mercury tipoff at 3:00 p.m. EST on June 30.
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