I was very skeptical of our men’s team’s chances after they came fifth in qualifiers, but these dudes brought some serious scrappy underdog energy to the party and ended up clawing their way to a bronze medal. They capped it with Stephen Nedoroscik on the pommel horse — the ONLY apparatus he did all night; he had to wait about two and a half hours, cheering his teammates and bringing them water and trying to stay UP and stay warm but also keep his focus, and he was the very last routine and he had to stick it to beat Ukraine, and he DID. That team had phenomenal energy even when they were lower in the standings; at one point I think they were sixth, but they just kept cheering each other and feeding into and off of the crowd energy as if they were in first. It must have felt like it. As someone pointed out in our Drinks With Broads thread, the event was the very epitome of, “You win bronze, but lose silver.” China was devastated but it was a party in the U.S.A.
