Asher Hong wins U.S. mens all-around gymnastics title
SAN JOSE — The past two years, Brody Malone was the star of U.S. men’s gymnastics. As the two-time reigning all-around national champion — and one who claimed medals on high bar at the past two world championships — Malone cemented his place at the top of the program.
But at this year’s U.S. championships, Malone could only watch. After he suffered a knee injury in a fall on his high bar dismount in March — he needed three surgeries — Malone is on the sideline and hopes to be healthy in time for next summer’s Paris Olympics.
At last year’s U.S. championships, Donnell Whittenburg and Asher Hong trailed Malone, placing second and third. This year, in Malone’s absence, Hong ascended to claim his first national title Saturday night with a score of 170.930 across the two-day competition. His Stanford teammate Khoi Young finished second at 169.455.
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Only a handful of American men have broken the 85-point mark for an all-around score this year; Hong did it on both days of competition.
“I feel great about everything,” he said. “[Saturday] started a little bit slow with the competition. High bar, obviously I was super motivated after the hit. Floor was a little bit rough. [Pommel] horse was a little bit rough. But then got back on it. The energy was there for rings, vault and [parallel bars]. I’m really happy with how today went.”
After Thursday’s opening day of competition at SAP Center, Hong was in the lead but just .146 points separated the scores of the top three gymnasts: Hong, Yul Moldauer and Fred Richard.
“I think everyone here, especially the top three, it’s going to be exciting on Saturday,” Moldauer said Thursday.
Moldauer’s prediction was accurate. Over the first three rotations Saturday, Moldauer, Richard and Young pulled ahead of Hong — partially because Hong hadn’t competed on his three highest-scoring events. But none of the four had a major mistake on their first three routines, setting the stage for a compelling second half of the night.
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His strong set on rings, with a score of 15.099, pushed Hong into second place through four rotations, but Richard remained in the lead.
But in the fifth rotation, Richard fell during his pommel horse routine. Meanwhile, Hong had an ace up his sleeve. Hong’s vault, known as a Ri Se Gwang for the former North Korean standout, was the hardest vault performed in the competition and carries a 6.0 difficulty score — the highest difficulty value for a vault in the men’s gymnastics Code of Points.
After performing a front handspring with a one-quarter turn onto the vaulting table, Hong exploded into two backflips with a full twist. He put so much power into the vault that he landed slightly out of bounds, costing him a tenth of a point, but his 15.105 was the highest vault score Saturday and put him firmly in the lead.
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By the time Hong saluted the judges at parallel bars to begin his final routine, it was all but guaranteed that he would emerge as the all-around champion. Young and Richard finished earlier in the rotation, and Moldauer dropped out of the lead after floor.
“It was kind of just, do what I’ve been doing at practice,” Hong said. “[I have] been training for it — nothing new. ... Didn’t think too much about it.”
Still, Hong ended his weekend emphatically, turning in a near-flawless routine and capping his title with a stuck dismount. He didn’t shy away from celebrating after any of his routines, but his explosive cheers — with fist pumps and waves to encourage the already-roaring crowd — left no doubt about what he had accomplished.
In just his second season as a senior elite, Hong, 19, has already been on a world championships team and is now the national all-around champion. The U.S. team for this year’s world championships, which will be held next month in Antwerp, Belgium, was announced Sunday. As expected, Hong has been named to his second world championships team.
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Joining Hong in Antwerp will be Young, Richard, Moldauer and Paul Juda, who finished sixth in the all-around and was the gold medalist on floor. Colt Walker is the traveling alternate.
Though they’ll be without Malone at the world championships, the U.S. squad set a goal of winning a team medal — which would be its first at the world championships or the Olympics since scoring a bronze at worlds in 2014.
“I’ve put in a lot of hard work in the gym,” Hong said. “The next few weeks, if I’m selected for the worlds team, [I’m] going to go back and work just as hard to perform at the worlds and hopefully get the team on the podium.”
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