Paris isn’t just the U.S. women’s gymnastics team’s redemptive tour. It’s also gymnast Brody Malone’s redemption tour.
After a disappointing finish at the Tokyo Olympics and a devastating knee injury last March that could have ended her gymnastics career, Malone is looking to – at the very least – take home gold in her best event.
The U.S. men’s gymnastics team hasn’t taken home an Olympic medal since 2008, and this year’s group is determined to be the first in 16 years to reach the podium.
A small mistake in Tokyo meant finishing fourth on the top bar, which “leaves a really bad taste in my mouth”, he said.
Malone, 24, won bronze at the World Championships later that year and won gold at the same competition the following year, but “there’s only a difference between a world medal and an Olympic medal. So that’s what I want,” he he said.
A hand slip on the top bar at the DTB Cup in Germany in March 2023 called into question Malone’s dreams of a second Olympic appearance and an Olympic medal.
He “landed badly” when dismounting and dislocated his knee. Weeks later, an MRI showed that he had torn several ligaments in his knee and fractured part of his tibia.
Three operations and more than a year of intensive training and rehabilitation later (he had to relearn how to walk), Malone, against all odds, is making his Olympic comeback on all six apparatus.
“It was always in the plans, you know, to try to make a comeback,” Malone said. “The question was whether or not I could do solo and vault,” which are the two most strenuous knee-based events.
It was the injury that pushed Malone to Paris, calling it a “huge motivator” for him to return to the Olympics.
“You never know how much you want something until it’s taken away from you,” Malone said. “And that’s exactly how it all ended up working out.”
However, it wasn’t without a lot of hard work. There were days, Malone said, when he didn’t want to go to the gym to train, frustrated that he was on crutches, coming off weeks of bed rest.
“But it’s important to have the perspective that I don’t have to do this — I can do this,” Malone said. He used this thought to change his mindset, focusing on small goals that he could achieve in the gym on a daily basis.
“That’s what kept me going,” he said. “It’s just setting small goals every day that you know you can achieve and then achieving those goals, and that keeps you going until the end.”
All of this work has been building up to the Paris Olympics, which begin on July 26th. Malone said his knee is “doing really, really well” but said he is not planning any upgrades for the Games. Instead, he will follow the routines he did at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials and “just try to execute them as cleanly as possible.”
Searching for gold in Paris
Malone is a kind of big brother to the 2024 team, the only one of the five members who has already been to the Olympics.
He is happy to take on this role, he said. Even though he didn’t win a medal in Tokyo, he performed well and knows the pressure of being at the Olympics, so he wants to be “the go-to guy” for his teammates, just like three-time Olympic champion Sam Mikulak was for him in Tokyo.
“Anything I can bring to them, about what it’s like to compete in the Olympics, what mental approaches to take or anything like that. That’s my role on the team,” Malone said.
Malone said he’s super excited to hit the mat with Asher Hong, a Stanford teammate who Malone said is “a lot of fun” at competitions, and pommel horse star Stephen Nedoroscik, who Malone said is “super goofy” and “keep calm”.
Nedoroscik’s carefree attitude encouraged Malone, a self-described “super focused” guy who likes to “be in my own bubble, in my own space and doing my own thing,” to have a little more fun on the mat. He admitted that he started telling a few jokes, but not many.
Malone needs to stay focused if he wants to keep up with Daiki Hashimoto, a Japanese gymnast who won gold in the individual all-around in Tokyo and is a high bar specialist like Malone. He’s someone Malone admires and respects, but also wants to win.
Malone said he even had his trainer post photos of Hashimoto at the gym to encourage him to “get my ass in gear and work hard.”
What’s next for Malone after Paris? He has no idea. He said he’s “toying with the idea of coming back for the 2025 World Cup,” and the 2028 Los Angeles Games aren’t out of the question, but he also has a wedding to plan for next year, “so there’s a lot of life. outside of gymnastics happening for me.”
But in the coming weeks the focus will be on the Paris Games.
“As long as we go out there and do everything in our power, like do our best gymnastics and do our best, I’ll be happy with the result,” Malone said, adding that the goal is still to medal.
Malone said he prefers to keep his mind in the present and focus on the process, but “getting to a high bar final and winning a medal on the high bar, that would be icing on the cake.”
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
