The men got their chance to duke it out for their chance at the coveted team gold.
Team Japan with Kohei Uchimura was shooting for their first Olympic gold in twelve years. Team Great Britain wanted another shot at the podium. Team USA was hoping for a medal.
How did the boys do?
After a slow start, Japan was able to build their momentum and crawled their way up the leaderboard to a team gold.
Lead by billion time world champion, Kohei Uchimura, the men scored victory with a team total of 274.094, a 2.634 lead over silver medalists, Russia, who took home their first team medal period since the 2000 Games in Sydney. The 2012 champions, China ended up in bronze medal position with 271.122. Kohei wasn't the only star of the team. The baby of the team, Kenzo Shirai put an exclamation point on their team performace with his super human twisting ability on floor. Opening with a 3 1/2 twist and including a quad twist, earning a huge 16.133 with a 7.2 difficulty score.
But of course, there were disappointments.
The men of team Great Britain, complete with Louis Smith's man bun, coming off their historic team medal in London were hoping for another podium finish.
Rio and the pommel horse did not agree. London pommel horse gold medalist, Louis Smith anchored team GB on his signature event. Perhaps it was the pressure, perhaps it was his man bun being tied so tightly on his head it cut off circulation, but in the end, Louis had a once in a blue moon (for him) fall on pommel horse, putting the British squad out of the medals with a 269.752, 1.37 points away from the podium. It won't be the last we see of the British. Even though a team medal is out of the realm of possibilities, individual medal opportunities still await the boys.
Much like Team Japan, the men of Team USA started off slow with steps out of bounds on floor and a fall from Alex Naddour. Jake Dalton and his magnificent toe point saved the boys on floor, but it was still a slow start. The next two events didn't go too much better, but their scores steadily increased over the course of the competition. The guys hit vault with a good rotation and had a strong parallel bars rotation. High bar, a great event for the boys, should have been a cake walk. Sam Mikulak and Chris Brooks hit their routines scoring well into the 15's. It was up to Danell Leyva to hit. Unfortunately, he peeled off the bar in the middle of his routine, only earning a 14.333. But the question is, had Danell not fallen, could team USA have medaled? Well... I added back the point for Danell's fall to his high bar score and it bumped team USA's high bar score to a 45.441, which would bump them up a place from fifth to fourth over Great Britain. To put them into third place, they would have needed to gain 2.562 points to overtake China. If they started off on floor cleaner and didn't have errors in the first couple rotations, they could have possibly medaled. Ultimately, they were fifth. Their same placement from London four years earlier.
In the news of the weird, Ukraine basically gave up mid competition when their anchor scratched high bar, squashing any dreams of any medal right then and there. Ukraine ultimately finished in last place and the reasons for the scratch still aren't known.... as far as I know.
Final standings all teams:
1. Japan 274.094
2. Russia 271.463
3. China 271.122
4. Great Britain 269.752
5. USA 268.850
6. Brazil 263.728
7. Germany 261.275
8. Ukraine 202.878
Team Japan with Kohei Uchimura was shooting for their first Olympic gold in twelve years. Team Great Britain wanted another shot at the podium. Team USA was hoping for a medal.
How did the boys do?
After a slow start, Japan was able to build their momentum and crawled their way up the leaderboard to a team gold.
Lead by billion time world champion, Kohei Uchimura, the men scored victory with a team total of 274.094, a 2.634 lead over silver medalists, Russia, who took home their first team medal period since the 2000 Games in Sydney. The 2012 champions, China ended up in bronze medal position with 271.122. Kohei wasn't the only star of the team. The baby of the team, Kenzo Shirai put an exclamation point on their team performace with his super human twisting ability on floor. Opening with a 3 1/2 twist and including a quad twist, earning a huge 16.133 with a 7.2 difficulty score.
But of course, there were disappointments.
The men of team Great Britain, complete with Louis Smith's man bun, coming off their historic team medal in London were hoping for another podium finish.
Rio and the pommel horse did not agree. London pommel horse gold medalist, Louis Smith anchored team GB on his signature event. Perhaps it was the pressure, perhaps it was his man bun being tied so tightly on his head it cut off circulation, but in the end, Louis had a once in a blue moon (for him) fall on pommel horse, putting the British squad out of the medals with a 269.752, 1.37 points away from the podium. It won't be the last we see of the British. Even though a team medal is out of the realm of possibilities, individual medal opportunities still await the boys.
Much like Team Japan, the men of Team USA started off slow with steps out of bounds on floor and a fall from Alex Naddour. Jake Dalton and his magnificent toe point saved the boys on floor, but it was still a slow start. The next two events didn't go too much better, but their scores steadily increased over the course of the competition. The guys hit vault with a good rotation and had a strong parallel bars rotation. High bar, a great event for the boys, should have been a cake walk. Sam Mikulak and Chris Brooks hit their routines scoring well into the 15's. It was up to Danell Leyva to hit. Unfortunately, he peeled off the bar in the middle of his routine, only earning a 14.333. But the question is, had Danell not fallen, could team USA have medaled? Well... I added back the point for Danell's fall to his high bar score and it bumped team USA's high bar score to a 45.441, which would bump them up a place from fifth to fourth over Great Britain. To put them into third place, they would have needed to gain 2.562 points to overtake China. If they started off on floor cleaner and didn't have errors in the first couple rotations, they could have possibly medaled. Ultimately, they were fifth. Their same placement from London four years earlier.
In the news of the weird, Ukraine basically gave up mid competition when their anchor scratched high bar, squashing any dreams of any medal right then and there. Ukraine ultimately finished in last place and the reasons for the scratch still aren't known.... as far as I know.
Final standings all teams:
1. Japan 274.094
2. Russia 271.463
3. China 271.122
4. Great Britain 269.752
5. USA 268.850
6. Brazil 263.728
7. Germany 261.275
8. Ukraine 202.878
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