Japan Triumphs Over China to Claim Gold in Men's Artistic Gymnastics Team at the 2024 Olympics

By Jayson Panganiban July 31, 2024 11:18

Photo by REUTERS/Andy Chua

The Japanese men’s gymnastics team claimed Olympic gold with an epic comeback win over its top rival China. On Monday after an intense and nail-biting duel, China poised to claim its first Olympic title in 12 years with one rotation to go, she suffered a near success syndrome, and Japan surged ahead to win the Paris Olympics men’s team competition.

The Japanese was behind by more than three points going into the last apparatus, overtook their rivals and Asian counterparts after China’s Su Weide fell twice off the horizontal bar. Xiao Ruoteng couldn't redeem his team as he underperformed under pressure. Japan won with a small margin of 0.532 points. Su couldn't be left alone as he also botched a landing on vault earlier. He took the blame for the bitter defeat but the deed is already done.

"Today taught me a big lesson," Su said to the Press. "It's a big regret. I feel sorry for my senior partners in the team. The truth is that they have worked very hard and they don't deserve this, there were a lot of injuries in the buildup, this is not an excuse, and because of my underperformance today, we lost the gold medal to Japan."

The Chinese had dominated qualification, finishing ahead of Japan, the reigning global champion. They competed in the same group, starting with floor exercises. Aside from Su's misstep on the vault, China had been steady on all apparatuses and had taken the lead halfway through the competition.

Zhang Boheng achieved a remarkable 15.100 on the parallel bars in the penultimate rotation, while colleague Zou Jingyuan went even further with a rare 16.000. However, Japan has long believed that it has the ability to reverse the situation. Takaaki Sugino, Shinnosuke Oka, and Tokyo Olympics all-around champion Daiki Hashimoto helped the comeback with strong performances on the horizontal bar, while Sue struggled.

It was Japan's seventh team gold medal and first since Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

The Team United States of America scored 257.793 points, edging Britain for bronze. Frederick Richard and Brody Malone were on top of their game, and every member of the United States team contributed. Stephen Nedoroscik, a pommel horse specialist, joined his teammates for the last cycle.

Team Russia, which won gold at the Tokyo Games, did not compete due to its involvement in the war with Ukraine.

Hashimoto, who appeared to be experiencing right shoulder trouble during qualifying, tumbled midway through his pommel horse performance. He finished stronger but wore a gloomy expression after his dismount. He briefly put his head in his hands, knowing that his mediocre score would dash his team's chances of winning a gold medal.

Hashimoto recovered fast and provided a superb vault. despite getting a massage, he finished off the evening with a fantastic routine on the horizontal bar despite failing to qualify for the eight-man apparatus final. "Even though there were some errors in our routines, we kept on motivating each other," Hashimoto said. "I used the passion of my teammates on my final routine on the high bar."

After Hashimoto's turn, Zhang had an opportunity to put China back in the lead, but his score was insufficient. "In the end, we did not perform as well as we could have. We ended up with a silver medal, which is frustrating," Zhang said.

The women's Gymnastics gold was won by Team United States of America, which was led by the eight-time Olympic medalist Simone Biles.