Germany’s history in gymnastics is a difficult one to make sense of before the wall came down.

The German Democratic Republic in the east was one of the dominating programs from its first Summer Games in 1968 straight up until its final appearance in 1988 while West Germany struggled to put the program on the map. Technically we could say that German gymnasts have excelled, earning team medals in all five Olympics in which they competed, making this year’s sixth-place feat not that much of a big deal.

But the German program that exists today has few ties to the East Germany of the past, though several coaches did come up through that system. Whether they can claim the decades of former glory as their own is a contentious topic, and despite the success of the East German women, ever since the splintered countries reappeared as a single unit at Barcelona 1992, the Germans have failed to reach the top eight as a team (and didn’t qualify full teams at all between 1996 and 2004).

Maybe it was the magic of having Oksana Chusovitina join the squad in 2006, or perhaps the code change gave them a bit of a push thanks to their strong difficulty, but Germany finally returned to the Olympic stage as a full team in 2008. Some struggles on beam — always their nemesis — in the qualification round left them a few points shy of the team final. The women improved the next quad, automatically qualifying to the Games thanks to their sixth-place finish at worlds, but in 2012 beam again got the best of them, and they missed the final by one spot, only three tenths short of Canada’s finish.

This quad, the Germans have seen roughly a million injuries, limiting them internationally at nearly every turn and causing them to miss the automatic Olympic berth at worlds last year. But this year, it seemed like everything was working in their favor. Their top gymnasts — Elisabeth Seitz, Sophie Scheder, and Pauline Schäfer, known as the “three Hambüchens” — continued working toward peak difficulty and consistency, while plenty of up-and-comers began coming together in their own right, especially as Tabea Alt finally reached the senior ranks.

Germany killed it at the Olympic Test Event, qualifying to the Games second behind Brazil, and had so much depth leading up to the Olympic Games, they could afford to send a mostly B team to Euros. This team finished seventh in finals, less than a point behind Romania (which also sent a mostly B team though not by choice, as everyone else was injured and the gymnasts who competed in Bern were mostly there by default).

When it came time for the Olympic team selection, the tremendous depth meant several of their test event competitors would wind up only alternates. 16-year-old Alt and the newly-healed returning Olympian Kim Bui, who injured her knee a year before the Games, joined the Hambüchens to form the country’s strongest Olympic team since the East German era, a team that would go on to notch Germany’s best finish since the GDR won team bronze in 1988.

With the current German team, as good as they are, consistency is always a question. But in qualifications, there were zero concerns as they barreled from one event to the next with only minor missteps, none of which counted into their team totals. Finishing on bars, the strongest event for the women overall, they managed four hit sets, dropping Alt’s 14.666 to finish third-best in the world on the event with a 45.699.

Things only heated up for team finals, where the Germans had twelve fully hit routines to earn a 173.672, their best finish in recent history, and less than three points shy of the podium. The women were again third-best on bars, this time with a 45.899 thanks especially to Seitz with her 15.533 and Scheder with her 15.466 (though Bui was no slouch with a 14.9 of her own). And, shockingly, they were fourth-best on beam, an event which was once their downfall. Alt stepped up to the plate with the team’s most solid performance to earn a 14.6 while 2015 world medalist Schäfer brought in a 14.5 and Seitz rounded them out with a 14.0. Though their difficulty pales on vault and floor, they again showed clean performances that allowed them a tremendous finish.

Sixth place is definitely hard to get excited about, but for the Germans, it exceeded all expectations. They got over any consistency issues, hit incredible difficulty like it was no big deal, and excelled in their performance level, with some of the most impressive individual routines all quad. It was an amazing day for Team Germany, and with most of this year’s team hoping to return in the next quad, hopefully just the beginning of a revival in their program.

At the individual level, both Seitz and Scheder made the all-around final, with Seitz qualifying 11th and Scheder just making it, finishing 28th after a fall on beam but earning the second-to-last spot thanks to the two-per-country rule. In the final, Seitz struggled on beam, finishing 17th with a 56.366, though Scheder had a bit of a disaster of a day, finishing last with a 53.907 after falling on both bars — her first bars fall of 2016 — and beam.

It was rather unexpected to see her perform so poorly there, as Scheder had pretty consistently rocked the all-around this year, winning the national and Olympic trials all-around titles in addition to a gold medal at the Stuttgart World Cup in March. It seemed she saved her best performances for when they counted, however, as she was rock-solid both in the team competition and in the bars final, where a nearly flawless set earned a 15.566, her best bars score of 2016 to help her edge out Seitz for the bronze medal by less than a tenth.

The two placing third and fourth in the bars final was fitting. They’ve both competed on the event 15 times apiece this year, going back and forth to finish a tenth from one another at nearly every meet they’ve done, with Scheder typically taking silver to Seitz’s golds. I wish they could have tied for bronze with matching D and E scores, but ultimately I do feel like Scheder is the slightly cleaner bar worker and I was happy to see her reach the podium.

They did miss out on placing either Alt or Schäfer into the beam final, but the field there ended up being surprisingly deep, and both only missed out by a few tenths. Schäfer also missed out on the floor final by less than a tenth, finishing as the second reserve which was one of the most shocking results of the day. Her floor work in Rio was exceptional and unexpectedly clean, earning two of the highest scores of her career for what is typically a good but not great event for her.

At the end of the day, I am absolutely thrilled with Germany’s progress in the sport and while there were a couple of tiny missed opportunities in not getting anyone into the beam final, ultimately they finished better than they ever could have hoped both as a team and individually. Nothing was a given for this team, and even Scheder’s bars medal came with a bit of luck, as both Gabby Douglas and Daria Spiridonova suffered mistakes in the final, but the Germans met every challenge and exceeded all expectations with nothing but solid, clean, and happy gymnastics all week long. This was one of my favorite teams to watch in Rio and I hope they can continue their success in the future.

Plus, they totally rocked highlighter neon pinks, yellows, and oranges all week long, so they get a special fashion high five for pulling off what so many people can’t (and maybe shouldn’t even try).

Article by Lauren Hopkins