It’s been quite a year for Brody Malone.
After a high bar fall at a World Cup event in Germany last year caused massive damage to his right knee, Malone laid in bed for weeks, unable to walk. Over the course of the year, the Summerville, Georgia-raised gymnast progressed through rehab, relearning how to walk again. All the while, he was training in the gym, working on upper body-intensive events like the still rings and pommel horse to keep himself sharp. And it all culminated in him earning his second trip to the Olympics and the U.S.’s first medal in men’s gymnastics since 2008.
Malone’s performance was critical to the U.S.’s success. He earned over a 14 on every event except for pommel horse and his leadership among his teammates was notable, huddling them up after each event and reminding them to keep their eyes on their own path. It was a performance that Team USA needed to have a chance to medal at the Olympics given the strength of China, Japan and Ukraine, and Malone rose to the occasion to earn his and his teammates’ spot in Olympic history.
“We just had to stay in our bubble, go one event at a time and not look at what anyone else was doing,” Malone said. “That was the plan going into it and we executed it flawlessly. We said beforehand, let’s treat it like in NCAAs and that’s exactly what we did and it worked out.”
Malone’s Olympic journey wasn’t smooth either. Despite winning the U.S. Championships in early June, teammate Frederick Richard beat him at Olympic Trials. He made the team and was a favorite to medal in the all-around. But it all went wrong on Saturday when he crashed out of the all-around competition after sitting his pommel horse routine and falling off the high bar. Teammate Paul Juda surpassed him in the standings and Malone ultimately finished 30th, six places out of the all-around final. He also did not qualify for any individual finals. Today was his one chance at a medal.
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“It was just go back and fix my mind,” Malone told NBC after the medal ceremony. “I hit some basics yesterday, reset myself and I knew it was gonna be different … with the team today and that’s what happened.”
The reset clearly worked. He recorded no falls or large mistakes and put together the exact sort of performance the U.S. team needed out of its oldest member. Malone didn’t let Saturday’s disaster affect his performance in the team final, and it produced the U.S.’s first medal in 16 years.
“We just had to stay in our bubble, go one event at a time and not look at what anyone else was doing,” Malone said. “That was the plan going into it and we executed it flawlessly. We said beforehand, let’s treat it like in NCAAs and that’s exactly what we did and it worked out.”
Malone has long been a star in the U.S. gymnastics system. A two-time NCAA all-around champion, he was part of three of Stanford’s men’s gymnastics national titles along with winning the high bar title three times and the floor title once. He won gold with the U.S. at the 2022 Pan American Championships and won gold on the high bar at the 2022 World Championships. But undoubtedly, this is the one that means the most.
