Summerville’s Brody Malone lights up Tokyo

Summerville, Ga – The Chattooga County gymnast rose to the top for team USA during his qualifying round on Saturday, July 24.

Malone, who moved to Georgia at age 5 from Johnson City, Tennessee, made his Olympic Debut and earned a spot in the all-around final. He clinched the highest overall score among his USA teammates with 85.298, eleventh overall. In other words, he qualified in the top 24 for Wednesday’s men’s all-around final.

He had outstanding score in horizontal bar (14.533, fourth-highest), vault (14.533), rings (14.200) and parallel bars (14.633). He did go out of bounds in his floor routine, ranking 39^th overall and 28^th for the pommel horse.

The top eight scores for each event score a place in the final, so Malone will be going for a medal on August 3.

Team USA’s overall score was 256.761. They finished fourth behind Japan, China, and Russia. Russia’s competing as the ROC since sanctions keep them from competing under the country’s flag or name. They were caught in a doping scandal in 2019.

Samuel Mikulak and Malone will compete in the team’s all-around final.

Malone’s not the only Georgia-connected athlete making waves in Tokyo. UGA athletes have brought home five medals and swimmers Chase Kalisz and Jay Litherland won gold and silver in the men’s 400M individual-medley on Saturday. Six UGA swimmers made it to the Olympics make sure to check them out during the swimming events the first week.

Some Georgia athletes are just now hopping on their flights to Tokyo and hoping to bring home a medal.

To date, the USA’s won 10 medals, just behind China.

Feature image courtesy of USA gymnastics.