“The NCAA is a huge part of our success.” Brody Malone On Paris and Hitting the Road With Gold Over America

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“The NCAA is a huge part of our success.” Brody Malone on Paris, life, and hitting the road on Gold Over America

After winning the U.S. All-Around title back-to-back in 2021 and 2022, Brody Malone began storming the international scene, including earning the title of World Champion on high bar in Liverpool in 2022. He was on a roll, with his high difficulty sets and crisp execution, poised to go toe-to-toe with the best of the best in the lead up to Paris. 

But in 2023, he suffered an absolutely devastating injury at the DTB Pokal Cup: a tibial plateau fracture, a partially torn PCL, and a fully torn LCL. What followed was a grueling repair and recovery regime, beginning with his first surgery right after the event in Germany that required flying home with an external fixator (a metal device holding bones in position but sticking out to connect to each other). On the day he landed back in the U.S., he underwent a second surgery, followed by a third and final surgery in July of last year. All of them were carefully paired with hundreds of hours in physical therapy in and out of the gym, and doing even more rehab independently. 

All the while, he had his eyes on the climb to return to the Olympic stage in Paris. Sometimes down, but never deterred, he’s guided by his strong faith and an incredible support system.

“God got me through it,” Malone told us of the process in June at the U.S. Championships. “And then on top of that, just my friends and family. My fiancée came out and basically took care of me when I was stuck in the bed. Just having those people close to that just helped me get through it.”

Fast forward through those three surgeries and a punishing rehab process and Malone was back and ready to make a run for his second Olympic Games. And at Championships in Fort Worth, Malone earned his third national title in what was his first return to All-Around competition. It was absolutely remarkable.

“I’m very proud of Brody,” Malone’s coach Syque Caesar said. “He had a long and grueling recovery process to be in competitive form. To perform at such a high level at the U.S. Championships is a testament to his determination, work ethic, discipline, and methodical approach over this last year in his training.” 

Even his competitors have acknowledged how Malone is inspiring and motivating them. “I mean, it just shows Brody is a dog, number one,” his teammate Frederick Richard said. “So much respect for him. So much respect to just come back and dominate. He’s definitely going to push me in the gym.”

For Malone, the victory in Texas was a boost in his confidence, but he remained grounded and focused, Paris in sight. “I’ve prepared for these competitions for my whole life,” he said. The day after he was named to the team at Olympic Trials he noted making a second Olympic team and the anticipated experience was about to be sweeter compared to Tokyo, simply because of all he’d been through.

‘It’s been a long journey for sure,” he said prior to the competition at the Games, reiterating, “I mean, with the support that I’ve had from my family, my teammates, my coaches, and the medical staff, the medical staff has been amazing. Just taking it day by day and setting a little goal for each day that I know I reach. And that’s how I approach it. Just every day, wake up and just be like, what can I get better at today?”

After my injury, it put things in a good perspective for me. You never know how bad you want something until you have it taken away from you, and that was what happened. I mean, I’ve just been taken every day, just having a lot of gratitude being grateful for every day that I’ve been given and able to push towards making it back to this point. It’s hard not to be happy when you’re just grateful for it.”

After a rough round in Qualifications, Malone did what all champions do: he got better. 

And, for the first time since 2008, the men of Team USA  – Asher Hong, Paul Juda, Brody Malone, Stephen Nedoroscik, and Frederick Richard – captured an Olympic team medal, standing on the podium with bronze around their necks. It created a media sensation that’s continued and can be felt in gyms across the country as the team – brothers united in one quest and believers from the start – emerged as heroes and shot to stardom overnight. 

It also marked a new era in so many ways for the team and hopefully sent a message to all of the NCAA administrators who have cut or who are looking to cut sports including men’s gymnastics from their programs. Five men, all from NCAA programs, won an Olympic team medal. Five men, who were down after Qualifications, but who never counted themselves out, saw their flag rise. Routine after routine, rotation after rotation they rallied, purposely bringing an NCAA atmosphere to the floor and focusing on their gymnastics and support of each other. 

When Nedoroscik hit pommel horse as the final routine and the crowd roared, no one jumped higher than Malone. And in the Mixed Zone following the meet, no one was smiling more than he was. “We told each other, ‘ok, we’re going to just treat this like an NCAA Championships,” he said of the difference between Qualifications and Team Finals. “We’ve all been there. It’s literally just an NCAA competition. That was our approach going into it, and it worked.”

Now, it’s all about enjoying the moment, resting and regrouping, and having fun. This month he’ll join an all-star cast on the Athleta Presents Gold Over America Tour performing in 30 cities across the country.

We caught up with Malone last week about Paris, life, and looking ahead to opening night in Oceanside. He was, by the way, wearing an LA 2028 shirt, but mostly just smiled when I asked about it… “My main goal right now is to focus on getting married. That’s my next biggest step in life. So, yeah, just eyes on that.” 

Last time I saw you, you had just stepped off the medal podium in Paris! How does this incredible accomplishment feel almost a month later?

I mean, it’s pretty incredible. After I got home, I didn’t really think about gymnastics much at all at home. I visited my family for about two weeks, and just got back to the gym last week, and now it’s kind of sinking in a little bit more and it feels great. I’m glad to have a little bit of rest and recovery and little downtime where I don’t have to think about gymnastics as much. But, I’m super, super pumped and excited about our success over there, and then also how it seems to be helping the sport as a whole. I’ve gotten phone calls and messages from a lot of different coaches that I’ve known growing up, just saying that their boys programs are blowing up. It’s awesome to see that something that we did can have that kind of impact on our sport. So it’s great. It makes it all worth it. 

I remember you telling us the day after Olympic Trials that you thought that the Games would be sweeter this time around, just because of all you’d been through. To come out with a medal on top of that, had to just feel like icing…. 

It was incredible. Just, you know, battling through that adversity for the past year and however long it’s been, and to come out with a medal, was incredible. That was our goal from the beginning, and it’s just awesome.

So now a little bit of a new chapter is starting – you’re hitting the road, going on tour. What’s exciting for you about this opportunity? And, what are you hoping to gain from the tour experience? 

I’m just super excited for the experience as a whole. I’ve never been on a tour before. I did get to do the Kellogg’s Tour back in, I believe it was 2016. The last time they did that one, I believe they brought in some local gymnasts when they stopped in Georgia. I got to be one of those, so that was really cool. I’m just looking forward to the experience as a whole, getting to travel around the country on a bus with some of my closest friends. There’s going to be a lot of us on the guys’ side going, and I think it’s just going to be really fun to be around them and hang out, and to just have fun doing gymnastics, not having to worry about doing routines or getting ready for a competition. It’s just going to be fun to go out there. 

I know one of the themes for your team is the camaraderie amongst you and the NCAA atmosphere. What are you looking forward to most, just being with the guys for almost two months straight, instead of seeing each other every few months? 

It’s only going to help us build that camaraderie more because we’ve all been through an NCAA program, so we know what that’s like. But, I mean, you’re right, for most of them, we don’t really get to see each other until National Team camps and competitions. So this is going to be a really good opportunity to just bring a group of guys that were, I mean, we’re already close, but it’s going to bring us a lot closer. 

For you, up until this year, we didn’t necessarily always get to see a lot of emotion from you on the floor. And you kind of let it out a little bit more this year! So are you ready for the showmanship part of the tour?

I’m definitely going to try some new things. We’ll see how it goes. I don’t know much of what we’re going to do… I mean, I’m going to have to show some emotion and get excited, but, I mean, I’m not going to be competing, and I’m usually only like that in competition. So you know, I’ll have some fun!

What about the overall impact on the sport and the new audience that you think this tour is going to bring in, having the guy’s presence as part of it now?

I think this is going to be an amazing opportunity for us to showcase what we can do in front of a crowd. A lot of the people are coming to see the women I think, and we’ll get to showcase what we can do in front of a little bit of a different crowd. And, I think it’s going to be really cool for them to see what we can do as well as the women. 

I’m definitely looking forward to not having to get into, like, a rigorous training schedule, and, you know, putting a lot of stress on my body. This is probably going to be the first time that I’ve had actual downtime from gymnastics in almost my whole career. I mean, besides when I was injured, I guess I had a big chunk of downtime (laughs). So, I’m looking forward to not just training gymnastics to compete. It’s going to be more fun, like high energy. Just being with the guys and the girls as well, and just having a good time.

You mentioned earlier just the overall impact the team medal is already making. When I spoke with Paul last week, that was one of his number one goals, to see the impact of what you guys did carry forward. Do you agree and what do you think the impact looks like?

Absolutely. This is going to help set up so many generations in the future. It’s kind of crazy to wrap my mind about the impact that this is going to have. And I mean, we want to keep our sport going. I would say men’s gymnastics, up until we won the medal, was kind of a slowly dying sport, especially in the NCAA, and that’s why we emphasized we’ve all been through the NCAA, and the NCAA is a huge part of our success. We wanted to emphasize that as much as we could, to try to, hopefully, create more programs and more opportunities for this younger generation to come up and be able to go to college and do gymnastics, which is what we did, and we love it so much. 

The more schools that offer programs, the better, because it’s just going to expand our sport. Give guys more opportunities, more chances to do what we’ve loved for so long. And I think that’s, again, a great message to send, and hopefully we’ll carry it into the tour as well and generate a lot of excitement.

Photos by John Cheng and Lloyd Smith

The tour schedule is as follows (subject to change):

September 17 Oceanside, CA Frontwave Arena

September 18 Phoenix, AZ Footprint Center

September 20 Los Angeles, CA Crypto.com Arena

September 21 San Jose, CA SAP Center at San Jose

September 23 Salt Lake City, UT Maverik Center

September 25 Denver, CO Ball Arena

September 27 Minneapolis, MN Target Center

September 28 Milwaukee, WI Fiserv Forum

September 29 Chicago, IL United Center

October 1 Newark, NJ Prudential Center

October 2 Pittsburgh, PA PPG Paints Arena

October 4 Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center

October 5 Brooklyn, NY Barclays Center

October 6 Boston, MA TD Garden

October 8 Baltimore, MD CFG Bank Arena

October 9 Charlotte, NC Spectrum Center

October 11 Sunrise, FL Amerant Bank Arena

October 12 Orlando, FL Kia Center

October 13 Duluth, GA Gas South Arena

October 15 St. Charles, MO The Family Arena

October 16 Kansas City, MO T-Mobile Center

October 18 Austin, TX Moody Center

October 19 Houston, TX Toyota Center

October 20 Fort Worth, TX Dickies Arena

October 27 Cleveland, OH Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse

October 29 Indianapolis, IN Gainbridge Fieldhouse

October 30 Louisville, KY KFC Yum! Center

November 1 Greensboro, NC Greensboro Coliseum

November 2 Cincinnati, OH Heritage Bank Center

November 3 Detroit, MI Little Caesars Arena

For more information, visit www.goldoveramericatour.com and follow @goldoveramericatour on Instagram and Facebook; #GoldOverAmericaTour.

For our behind-the-scenes feature on the 2021 the Athleta Presents Gold Over America Tour, Click Here!

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