In Paris, Texas, there’s an Eiffel Tower with a cowboy hat on top. It’s an imitation of the real thing — a taste of what Paris, France, might be like.
Two hours south in Fort Worth, Texas, 34 men’s gymnasts had their eyes set on the real Eiffel Tower and the real Paris, France, the host of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. Their journey to get there requires them to go through a competition that, like that cowboy hat-adorned Eiffel Tower, is only an imitation of the real one in Paris.
This weekend, six members of the University of Michigan men’s gymnastics team competed for a spot on the USA men’s national team, which guarantees them a spot at the Olympic trials in June in Minneapolis — their final step on the road to Paris. Ultimately, junior Frederick Richard, graduate student Paul Juda and volunteer assistant coach Cameron Bock earned their spots in the lineup, while junior Landen Blixt lost his spot on the senior development team and will not compete at the Olympic trials in June.
“I think it’s big for us as a program,” Michigan coach Yuan Xiao said. “We’ve never had so many [Michigan gymnasts] as we compete for the Olympic trials. So that means a lot to our program … They are representing the University of Michigan, they are representing our program. And I think that’s great numbers.”
Thursday night didn’t go as smoothly as the Wolverines’ gymnasts might have hoped. Richard struggled out of the gate on pommel horse, and while he ultimately recovered, his score of 12.850 was below his typical performance. But his scores steadily improved over the night, ending with a 14.600 on floor that vaulted him into second place after being in seventh place after the previous event.
Juda’s scores fluctuated throughout the night, and a poor high bar rotation didn’t help. Like Richard, though, he ended the evening on a high note, placing first on floor with a 14.750, slotting him into seventh place. Right behind Juda, Bock finished in eighth place, Blixt placed 20th and Alfonso and Bold, who competed in three events each, placed at 29 and 30, respectively.
On Saturday, day two of the competition, and with possible Olympic roster spots on the line, Michigan’s gymnasts stepped up their game. The Wolverines started on vault where Juda earned a 14.700, one of the highest scores of the night, and all four Michigan gymnasts competing on the apparatus earned above 14.000.
Bock earned a strong 14.900 on the parallel bars and Richard followed it up with a 14.600 despite clipping his leg on the bar. Juda bounced back from his 12.450 first-night high bar performance to earn a 14.000, and Richard duplicated his strong first performance on the apparatus to earn second place in the event. Richard followed it up with a 14.900 on floor, which earned Richard his second National Championship — his first on floor.
“I think today’s an awesome day,” Xiao said. “Today, everyone hit every routine. We don’t have any misses today … We had Richard win the floor, and then Landen (Blixt) third place. Paul Juda had a little bit of issue with one pass on floor, and so he finished fifth. You look at the result — every event, we had a couple guys (in) top six. Every event except the vault and (parallel) bars.”
The next step for the gymnasts who made the preliminary team is the Olympic trials in Minneapolis at the end of the month. There, the preliminary team of 20 gymnasts will be cut down to the five members who will go to Paris. Last night, the gymnasts who made the team received large cowboy hats not unlike the one on the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Texas. Perhaps in two months, they’ll be wearing them atop the real Eiffel Tower in France.
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