China has won the gold medal in the men’s gymnastics team final for a second consecutive Games, posting a score of 275.997 Monday afternoon at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Japan finished second (271.952) and Great Britain finished a surprising third (271.711) to earn the host country’s second bronze medal of the Games. Although, that’s not how it originally ended.
China Wins Men’s Team Gymnastics, USA Disappointing Fifth
The immediate results had Japan fourth and Ukraine third, which would have been the first time Japan failed to medal in men’s team since 2000. But an inquiry to the judges regarding Kohei Uchimura’s pommel horse was accepted, changing his score from 13.466 to a 14.166. That alteration was enough to push Japan past Ukraine.
The United States, which took bronze in 2008 and silver in 2004, finished a disappointing fifth (269.952) after a near-disastrous start in the first three rotations.
Team USA, which was aiming for gold after qualifying first heading into the finals, started slow, especially on their second rotation, pommel horse, where they finished seventh (out of eight). Halfway through the competition, the Americans found themselves in last place, with a lot of work to do.
Better showings on rings helped before a disappointing result on vault -- John Orozco sat on his attempt -- slowed the chances of a comeback and all but sealed their fate of missing the podium. They recovered to finish strong in both parallel bars and high bar (three-place scores on both), led by Orozco, Jonathan Horton and Danell Leyva (below), but it simply wasn’t enough to overcome their poor opening rotations.
Men’s gymnastics resumes Wednesday with the individual all-around.
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