Wiskus excluded from 2024 men’s gymnastics team

Shane Wiskus was clearly excited this week in Minneapolis, not only because he was back in his home state, but also because the former Gophers All-American was at his best during the U.S. Men’s Gymnastics Olympic Trials .

“I had the best two days of competition of my life,” he said.

Wiskus performed so well that after successfully landing his final event, the parallel bars, he let loose with his most emotional celebration of many over the two days of competition, imploring a crowd already loud supporter to make even more noise.

That performance earned him third place in the all-around and, Wiskus believed, clinched his spot on the five-man team that will travel to Paris for the Summer Games next month. About 45 minutes later, the rug was pulled out from under him.

“I feel like I earned it,” Wiskus said.

Frederick Richard, an NCAA champion sophomore from Michigan, won the all-around with a total score of 170.500 and the automatic Olympic qualification that goes with it. Stanford’s Brody Malone was second at 170.300, and Wiskus was next at 169.850. Wiskus was then named as a substitute in the squad that traveled to Paris.

Oklahoma’s Paul Juda (168.850) and Stanford’s Asher Hong (167.650) placed fourth and fifth and also made the team. The wild card choice was Wiskus’ EVO gymnastics teammate Stephen Nedoroscik, a pommel horse specialist who had the second-highest score of the event on that apparatus, a total of 29.300.

“I always thought there was a chance, there was a chance because I can put up a really good score for Team USA on an event that maybe they need,” said Nedoroscik, 25. “So my one score on that event, it adds more to a team than maybe someone who competes in multiple events.

“It was always in the back of my mind, I just knew it was going to be very difficult.”

The U.S. men have not won an individual Olympic medal since Danell Leyva won silver on parallel bars and horizontal bars, and Alexander Naddour won bronze on pommel horse, in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. The men have not won a team medal since a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games.

“You can expect, from me and the team, some medals in Paris,” said Frederick, who became the youngest man to win the U.S. trials since Steve Hug, also 20, in 1972.

Khoi Young, who placed 15th in the all-around this week but was an all-around bronze medalist at the U.S. Championships in May, joins Wiskus as another alternate.

Wiskus, 25, was not selected for the 2023 U.S. Championships and withdrew from the 2023 Pan American Games due to injuries. But he rebounded by winning silver in the all-around and bronze on floor and high bar at the 2024 Winter Cup.

At Target Center this week, he had the best composite score on the floor exercise (28.95) and was second on the horizontal bar (29.000). When asked how he felt after learning he wasn’t selected for the team, he replied: “Numb.”

He said playing at home again — he was a three-time NCAA champion at the U — was special. There were cheering sections throughout the arena Saturday, some holding large cardboard cutouts of his face, others reenacting a jump-clapping routine that Wiskus and his teammates did during their years at the university.

“I will remember this experience for the rest of my life,” he said. “This is probably the last gymnastics competition of my life, and what better way to end (than) at home with two of the best competitions of my entire life. »

“I had a lot of family and a lot of friends there,” he added, “and I just hope I made them proud.” It was quite an adventure. »