China surges past rival Japan during men's Olympic gymnastics qualifying

PARIS — Longtime men's gymnastics rivals China and Japan appear headed for another tight finish at the Olympics.

The sport's two superpowers surged to the top of qualifying at Bercy Arena on Saturday. China, seeking its fourth Olympic team title, posted a team total of 263.028. Japan, a seven-time Olympic champion, finished second at 260.594.

The five-man Chinese team, missing veteran Sun Wei after he was injured during training Thursday, used a series of spectacular routines on rings and parallel bars to stamp itself as the favorite heading into Monday's final.

Japan, the reigning world champion, dealt with a couple of uncharacteristic mistakes by current world and Olympic gold medalist Daiki Hashimoto but still finished well clear of third-place Great Britain.

While the 22-year-old Hashimoto will get a chance to defend his title in the all-around, he won't on high bar — his signature event — after stumbling during his dismount. Hashimoto appeared to be dealing with right shoulder discomfort for much of the afternoon and was tended to by a Team Japan trainer shortly after finishing up on still rings though he said afterward he was not hurt.

Hashimoto is currently third in the all-around through two subdivisions at 85.064, behind teammate Shinnousuke Oka (86.865) and China's Zhang Boheng (88.597).

The scores will reset for the team finals, though the only real question is who will join China and Japan on the podium with defending champion Russia ineligible due to the war in Ukraine.

The Japanese settled for silver at home in Tokyo in 2021, losing to the Russians by just over a tenth of a point in a close final while China took bronze a little further back.

“It was frustrating,” Japan's Kazuma Kaya said. "But we kept practicing every day for success today. Next time, in (the team final), I want the gold medal.”

The gold isn't the only medal in question. Bronze is a toss-up, too, though Britain made a strong case by topping the first subdivision, a group that included the U.S. Ukraine overcame a nightmarish set on high bar to slip past the U.S. and into fourth at 253.893, dropping the Americans into fifth at 253.229.

Italy, Switzerland and Canada also advanced to the finals, with the Canadians claiming the eighth and final spot by less than a quarter of a point over Turkey.

The British insist they don't have any sort of rivalry with the U.S., even if the two programs have spent the better part of a decade jockeying for position at nearly every major international event.

Britain sent a very real if unspoken message: it is more than capable of grabbing a bronze to go with the one it somewhat unexpectedly won in London a dozen years ago.

Jake Jarman's 84.897 all-around total was just ahead of teammate Joe Fraser while Max Whitlock — in his fourth and final Games — fought off the jitters he knew would come to score a 15.133 on pommel horse and give Britain plenty of momentum.

"A lot of people have asked me that question in terms of ‘How’s it feel to be above the U.S.?’" Whitlock said. “To be honest, you take it with a pinch of salt. I think it’s really important to kind of just think about our job.”

Russia’s absence creates a medal opportunity for the U.S., Britain and Ukraine behind another duel between China and Japan for gold. Still, Whitlock downplayed the idea that if Russia was involved, a team medal for anyone outside the sport's Big Three would be out of the question.

“If they were in, you’d like to think that they’d be up near the top,” Whitlock said. “So with them not, of course, there’s a little bit of (a better opportunity to medal), but only a little bit.”

The American men — hoping to repeat the bronze they won at the world championships last fall — weren't nearly as sharp in front of an audience that included U.S. First Lady Jill Biden, who clapped along with American star Frederick Richard's floor routine and posed for pictures with a somewhat subdued team afterward.

While Richard called the experience “pretty sick,” he regretted not being able to show Biden a “cooler” routine after he scored a 13.833, a bit below what he knows he'll need to medal in the all-around finals next week.

Richard wasn't the only one. The U.S. arrived in Paris hoping to earn a team medal at the Olympics for the first time since a bronze in Beijing 16 years ago. While that certainly remains on the table, Richard & Co. will need to be significantly better going forward after pommel horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik became the only American to make an apparatus final.

Brody Malone, who returned from a catastrophic leg injury in March 2023 to win the U.S. Championships in early June and make his second Olympic team, fell once on pommel horse and twice on high bar.

His second miscue on high bar — a high-risk, high-reward event in which Malone won gold at the 2022 world championships — forced the Americans to use Asher Hong's 12.600, one of the reasons the U.S. ended up 3.322 behind Britain.

“It was definitely not perfect,” U.S. high-performance director Brett McClure said. “And it was a few too many mistakes. I feel leading into team finals we need to clean some things up.”