Team USA

At the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, the U.S. men proved just how much depth their program has amassed over the past few years, with a group of athletes who missed out on making the world championships team claiming the team gold and reaching 11 individual finals.

It wasn’t a perfect competition for the team, with its top specialists – Stephen Nedoroscik on pommel horse and Curran Phillips on parallel bars – falling on their key events, but I think this was part of the excitement – the team seemed capable of putting big mistakes behind them to move on seamlessly into the next routine or event, and both Nedoroscik and Phillips still made their respective finals, with Phillips even qualifying into first on p-bars with the fall. In fact, all five athletes on the team reached individual finals, with 11 finals total on the docket in the coming days, and the team made the usually problematic high bar a strength, outscoring the worlds team on that event by more than two points.

Ultimately, their score of 249.860 would’ve put them in fourth place in qualifications at world championships, less than five points back from the U.S. worlds team that finished second in prelims and went on to win the bronze medal. Additionally, this U.S. “B team” was able to come in on top over two very competitive “A teams” here, with Canada taking the silver medal with a 246.794, a couple of points down from its worlds qualification score, and Brazil taking the bronze with a 245.394, exactly a tenth higher than its worlds score.

I was expecting both teams to be a bit weaker in comparison to worlds given they’ve had just a couple of weeks to come down from the high of Antwerp while also adjusting to a time zone change, but neither really seemed that bothered by it, and most of the athletes performed about as well as they did at worlds, if not better in some cases.

I think Canada’s drop in score was more about a few lineup switches than exhaustion – putting Félix Dolci in on pommel horse so he’d have a shot at the all-around, for example – and while they did have the occasional miss that held them back from challenging the U.S. men, it was still a great competition for them overall, with vault a highlight as the team put up only three athletes and all three were in peak form, led off with a stuck Kas 1½ from William Emard, followed by a strong handspring double front from René Cournoyer, and anchored by another stuck Kas 1½ from Dolci.

The Brazilian team was magnificent on high bar, earning a 42.299, which for context would have been second only to Japan in the worlds team qualification. All three of their counting routines were at a 14.033 or higher, and though Arthur Mariano went a bit wild on his Tak full, he still connected that easily into the Yamawaki, and made it through the rest of his difficult work with no problems, including on the Liukin to Endo, layout to straddle Tkachev combo, and beautiful full-twisting double layout dismount.

Unfortunately, top pommel horse worker Diogo Soares had a fall in that rotation, and with the rest of the guys scoring lower than Soares’ fall with hit routines, the team wasn’t able to remain competitive with the Canadians, especially with rings also really far behind without either Arthur Zanetti or Caio Souza on the team. But it was great to see them more or less performing at a high level without these two standout athletes, with Bernardo Miranda and Patrick Sampaio stepping in and performing very well both here and at worlds.

Rounding out the team final ranking were Argentina in fourth with a 238.995, Mexico in fifth with a 234.262, Cuba in sixth with a 230.228, Colombia in seventh with a 229.661, Chile in eighth with a 228.594, and Puerto Rico in ninth with a 164.129 (they were unable to field a full team on every apparatus).

Daniel Villafañe and Santiago Mayol were standouts for the Argentinian team, with Villafañe looking fantastic on rings and vault, while Mayol was one of the strongest all-arounders in the competition and proved himself a threat for the Olympic berth – which will be awarded following the final on Monday. Santiago Agostinelli proved himself a solid asset on five apparatuses, while Luca Alfieri was excellent on pommels and high bar, and Julian Jato was a good utility player, ultimately contributing scores on five of his six events.

For Mexico, Isaac Nuñez and Rodrigo Gomez were strong all-arounders, while their Antwerp teammate Fabian de Luna had a few missteps, including on floor and vault, but his rings work was strong. Cuba showed the makings of an incredible team, and for a while I thought they were going to upset for a medal, but unfortunately they had to count several falls on floor and on pommels, and showed that they just need a bit more control over their difficulty.

The complete rankings are below, along with lists of everyone who has qualified into individual finals. Athletes in italics are not eligible to qualify due to two-per-country limitations.

Team Final Standings

1. United States 249.860
2. Canada 246.794
3. Brazil 245.394
4. Argentina 238.995
5. Mexico 234.262
6. Cuba 230.228
7. Colombia 229.661
8. Chile 228.594
9. Puerto Rico 164.129

All-Around Qualifiers

1. Cameron Bock, United States, 82.598
2. Donnell Whittenburg, United States, 82.331
3. Diogo Soares, Brazil, 81.932
4. Colt Walker, United States, 81.698
5. Arthur Mariano, Brazil, 81.231
6. William Emard, Canada, 80.831
7. Félix Dolci, Canada, 80.632
8. Yuri Guimarães, Brazil, 80.532
9. Santiago Mayol, Argentina, 80.032
10. Audrys Nin Reyes, Dominican Republic, 78.965
11. Rodrigo Gomez, Mexico, 78.799
12. Isaac Nuñez, Mexico, 78.565
13. Edward Gonzales, Peru, 78.132
14. Joel Alvarez, Chile, 77.731
15. Andres Perez, Puerto Rico, 76.431
16. Julian Jato, Argentina, 76.430
17. Adickxon Trejo, Venezuela, 75.565
18. Luciano Letelier, Chile, 75.464
19. Andres Martinez, Colombia, 75.331
20. Diorges Escobar, Cuba, 74.765
21. Daniel Alarcon, Peru, 74.298
22. Johnny Valencia, Ecuador, 74.097
23. Jose Lopez, Puerto Rico, 73.832
24. Dilan Jimenez, Colombia, 73.665
25. Vahe Petrosyan, United States, 73.431
26. Cesar Lopez, Ecuador, 73.099
27. Caleb Faulk, Jamaica, 72.497

R1. Pablo Pozo, Cuba, 72.331
R2. Richard Atencio, Panama, 71.597
R3. Oliver Sons, Bolivia, 68.699

Floor Exercise Qualifiers

1. Félix Dolci, Canada, 14.266
2. Donnell Whittenburg, United States, 14.233
3. Yuri Guimarães, Brazil, 14.100
4. Arthur Mariano, Brazil, 14.066
5. Santiago Mayol, Argentina, 14.000
6. Rodrigo Gomez, Mexico, 13.900
7. Juan Larrahondo, Colombia, 13.800
8. René Cournoyer, Canada, 13.733

R1. Luciano Letelier, Chile, 13.600
R2. Colt Walker, United States, 13.533
12. Alonso Perez, Mexico, 13.533

Pommel Horse Qualifiers

1. Jayson Rampersad, Canada, 14.266
2. Zachary Clay, Canada, 13.966
3. Santiago Mayol, Argentina, 13.866
4. Nelson Guilbe, Puerto Rico, 13.866
5. Cameron Bock, United States, 13.766
6. Stephen Nedoroscik, United States, 13.633
7. Vahe Petrosyan, United States, 13.433
8. Luca Alfieri, Argentina, 13.400
9. Edward Gonzales, Peru, 13.233

R1. Rodrigo Gomez, Mexico, 13.133
R2. Diogo Soares, Brazil, 12.900
R3. Andres Perez, Puerto Rico, 12.566

Still Rings Qualifiers

1. Donnell Whittenburg, United States, 14.433
2. Daniel Villafañe, Argentina, 14.200
3. Félix Dolci, Canada, 13.800
4. René Cournoyer, Canada, 13.800
5. William Emard, Canada, 13.666
6. Kristopher Bohorquez, Colombia, 13.666
7. Colt Walker, United States, 13.633
8. Cameron Bock, United States, 13.600
9. Alejandro de la Cruz, Cuba, 13.600
10. Fabian de Luna, Mexico, 13.433

R1. Joel Alvarez, Chile, 13.166
R2. Cesar Lopez, Ecuador, 13.100
R3. Diogo Soares, Brazil, 13.033

Vault Qualifiers

1. Yuri Guimarães, Brazil, 14.400
2. Félix Dolci, Canada, 14.216
3. Arthur Mariano, Brazil, 14.183
4. Audrys Nin Reyes, Dominican Republic, 14.133
5. Daniel Villafañe, Argentina, 13.999
6. Josue Armijo, Chile, 13.983
7. Alejandro de la Cruz, Cuba, 13.816
8. Juan Larrahondo, Colombia, 13.500

R1. Yohendry Villaverde, Cuba, 13.483
R2. Jorge Vega, Guatemala, 13.416
R3. Edward Rolin, Venezuela, 13.349

Parallel Bars Qualifiers

1. Curran Phillips, United States, 14.466
2. Colt Walker, United States, 14.366
3. Diorges Escobar, Cuba, 14.166
4. Bernardo Miranda, Brazil, 14.133
5. Diogo Soares, Brazil, 14.100
6. Isaac Nuñez, Mexico, 14.033
7. William Emard, Canada, 13.866
8. Zachary Clay, Canada, 13.833

R1. Jose Escandon, Cuba, 13.733
R2. Andres Perez, Puerto Rico, 13.633
R3. Dilan Jimenez, Colombia, 13.633

High Bar Qualifiers

1. Bernardo Miranda, Brazil, 14.166
2. Arthur Mariano, Brazil, 14.100
3. Diogo Soares, Brazil, 14.033
4. Cameron Bock, United States, 13.800
5. Colt Walker, United States, 13.666
6. Yuri Guimarães, Brazil, 13.600
7. Audrys Nin Reyes, Dominican Republic, 13.566
8. René Cournoyer, Canada, 13.500
9. Curran Phillips, United States, 13.433
10. Donnell Whittenburg, United States, 13.366
11. Luca Alfieri, Argentina, 13.300
– William Emard, Canada, 13.300

R1. Isaac Nuñez, Mexico, 13.233
R2. Andres Martinez, Colombia, 13.166
R3. Diorges Escobar, Cuba, 13.100

Article by Lauren Hopkins