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TOKYO – Nikita Nagornyy struggled to stay on the medal podium on Monday night after Russia won the men’s gymnastics team event at the Tokyo Olympics.
He rubbed his eyes as tears wet his white mask and took deep breaths to calm himself. Eventually, he decided to take the mask off and use it to wipe his face. When the gold medals arrived on a platter for athletes to wrap around their necks – a change in tradition because of Covid-19 – his teammate Artur Dalaloyan felt obligated to do it for him.
Nagornyy was incredulous. He and the three other Russians on the team had won the gold medal against Japan. China was third. Six months ago, they made a plan to improve themselves and win Russia’s first gold in men’s team gymnastics since the Atlanta Games in 1996.
Their plan was less dramatic than what happened. Monday’s win in the team final came down to a tenth of a point, 0.103 to be exact. It comes down to a single gymnast making a very small mistake, such as bending the knees slightly when they should be straight, in just one of the 18 routines that counted.
It’s nothing, really. But Monday, that was it.
The gold medal was still in play when the last two gymnasts performed their routines. Daiki Hashimoto, from Japan, arrived second to last. After a spectacular routine, the thud of his descent echoed through the Ariake Gymnastics Center. His score was 15.1 and looked good enough to earn it for his team.
As his teammates jumped for joy, Hashimoto motioned to the handful of fans in the arena, and the many Japanese volunteers, to persuade them to stand up. His admirers stood up and cheered him on. The team felt great defending their 2016 Olympic title at the Rio Games.
“His landing was perfect,” said Takeru Kitazono, one of Hashimoto’s teammates. “I thought we won the gold.”
Still, they had to press pause during their celebration because Nagornyy’s floor exercise routine had been abandoned. In the end, they wouldn’t be partying at all.
Nagornyy ruined what promised to be a glorious Olympic moment for the Japanese home team, tumbling and twisting as well as he could on the floor – in fact, better than he expected. because he added additional tumblings to increase his score. After that he was nervous while waiting for the final standings, he said, sure the Japanese would have the edge over the judges as they would like to give the gold medal to the athletes from the host country.
When he saw that his score of 14.666 was good enough for the Russians to win, he fell to the ground and cried. Japanese gymnasts buried their heads in their hands and others stood frozen, stunned by the unexpected loss.
Nagornyy explained that the team was like the typhoon that earlier today was heading towards Tokyo, and that “the typhoon just won the gold”.
His teammate David Belyavskiy said: “Beating Japan in their home country was a great result for us. “
Before the team final, there was no clear favorite. The top three teams in Saturday’s qualifying – Japan, China and Russia – were only three tenths apart before the scores were erased for the final. It is not surprising that three countries fought a close battle for the medals.
Japan, Russia and China are still at the top of men’s gymnastics, and it’s only once in 73 years that another country has won Olympic gold. It was the United States in 1984, the year of the Soviet boycott, and the American team have struggled to keep up since then.
On Monday, the US team, led by three-time Olympian Sam Mikulak, made no major mistakes, but still finished fifth to tie their results at the last two Olympics. American men haven’t won an Olympic medal since winning a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and the reason is clear: their routines aren’t tough enough to get competitive scores.
After the final, the US team shared a revelation. His gymnasts had focused too much on perfecting the easier routines, rather than taking a risk and trying harder routines that would yield higher points.
“Playing it safe is not worth it,” said Shane Wiskus, of Spring Park, Minnesota. “When it comes to advancing USA Gymnastics and getting us on the podium, that’s not going to help us.”
Japanese men, however, had tough routines and didn’t have major mistakes either. Considering their evening went so well, they said they were disappointed not to win the gold medal, but were proud of their performance – especially proud of Hashimoto, who was under tremendous pressure but delivered a big routine when it counted.
The Russians were simply better than anyone, albeit by a very small margin. How they got to the top of the podium could be considered a miracle.
Denis ablyzin fractured both shins in a training session after the 2019 world championships and needed titanium plates affixed to them, Nagornyy said. And Dalaloyan tore an Achilles tendon in mid-April.
Dalaloyan didn’t think he could continue with the Olympics after a training session last week because he was still recovering from his injury. His leg was straight and unyielding. But his coaches convinced him to go ahead.
After completing the floor exercise in qualifying on Saturday, he sobbed for several minutes because he couldn’t believe he had gotten this far so soon after his injury. After winning the gold medal, he cried again.
“My emotions overwhelmed me and were greater than any pain or problem I have experienced,” he said.
In the press conference that followed, however, the Russian team was less overwhelmed and more giddy. When asked where they would keep their gold medals, Nagornyy said he would build a special case for his own, with laser-triggered alarms surrounding and protecting him. Then he would make six copies, so he could wear those fake medals in case someone stole one. His teammates laughed with him.
“In the end, we won the gold medal,” he said. “We did it. Our whole team did it today.
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