After a first place finish in Saturday's (July 28) qualifying round, the U.S. Men's Gymnastics Team placed fifth in the finals today (July 30).
Hopes were high on Sunday (July 29) when their final score of 275.342 was nearly three points higher than 2nd place Russia.
Samuel Mikulak expressed hope in success at the finals saying, "We definitely can carry on the confidence. We just want to stay humbled to make sure we go out and perform to the best of our ability."
The problems were evident on the pommel horse early in the finals. Danell Leyva fell off early in his performance and only scored 13.4, while John Orozco suffered multiple major breaks in his routine to come up with just 12.733.
Despite Jonathan Horton's 45.257 score on the rings, the U.S. dropped to last place at the halfway point of the events.
Orozco then butchered his vault landing but even with Orozco, Horton, and Leyva's top three high bar scores, it wasn't enough to salvage the team. They finished in place 5 of 8.
After a Japanese protest involving Kohei Uchimura's score on the pommel horse, the final podium saw China with gold, Japan with silver, and Britain with a bronze medal.
The U.S. team has not won an Olympic gymnastics title since 1984.
