Moldauer advances to floor final
The U.S. men are counting on Sam Mikulak to deliver again.
The Americans will put the threetime Olympian up last on four events in the team final Monday night (starting 5 a.m. Monday CT), hoping he’ll deliver a big score. Mikulak will go second-tolast on vault, and will not compete on still rings.
Three gymnasts from each team compete on each event in team finals, with all scores counting. To maximize their scoring potential, teams look for a lineup that can be counted on to hit, while also posting scores that get progressively higher.
The Americans had Mikulak anchor their lineup in qualifying, where the lowest score is dropped, and they were able to count all but his high bar score. He finished with the second-highest overall score for the U.S. men, following national champion Brody Malone.
Each of the gymnasts on the fourman team will compete on at least four events. Malone is sitting out floor exercise and parallel bars, while Shane Wiskus will not compete in pommel horse or vault. Former OU star Yul Moldauer, who scored a 14.866 on the floor routine Saturday, will do everything but high bar. Moldauer, who was 19th in allaround scoring, will also be competing for individual gold in the floor finals.
The Americans will be competing alongside Russia, which will use Artur Dalaloyan on all six events. The 2018 world champion blew out his Achilles just three months ago and was still undecided about competing the day before Saturday’s qualifying session, yet somehow managed to finish sixth in the all-around standings.