16. August 2004  
Olympic city Athens  
Artistic Gymnastics

MEN s TEAM FINAL: Japan is back, Gold after 28 years!

Gold for Japan!

A dramatic fight of Continents:
Asia - America - Europe
With a technically very impressive team performance Japan managed to win the gold medal in the men’s team competition again after 28 years. They reached the score of 173.721 and clearly stayed in front of the USA who won silver with 172.933 which brought them the first Olympic team medal after the Games in 1984.
Also the Romanians lost the dramatic battle for gold at the last apparatus but nonetheless for the first time in history they won an Olympic team bronze medal (172.384).

'...and the winner is: JAPAN!' - first Olympic medal again, after Gold in Montreal 1876

Paul Hamm
- The World Champion from Anaheim

Team finale, men
- Olympic Hall, 16-Aug-2004 -

1st rotation
At the beginning the US team was on a clear way to the gold medal. They started on floor and took the lead with 29.137, followed by the Russians who were strong on high bar (28.999) with a very impressive Nemov and his 6(!) flight elements. Japan started on rank 3 in front of the Chinese team (27.311) who couldn’t convinve on floor today – both of these teams started with quite a few small instabilities.
The German team started of well on high bar with a great routine of 16-year-old Fabian Hambüchen who presented three flight elements in a row, 2x Tkatchev + Gienger, (9.775).
2nd rotation:
 The Chinese impressed with 3 perfect routines on pommel horse and the highest score by World Champion Li, Xiaopeng with 9.862. They came closer to the top 3 but didn’t manage to overtake them. The US team still kept the lead, World Champion Paul Hamm presented a perfect routine for which he received 9.750 points. Japan remained on the 3rd place in this rotation.

Dragulescu - Romania for the first time in the lead

3rd rotation:
Rings were the weak event for the US gymnasts. Only the experienced Blaine Wilson convinced, he received the score of 9.637. With the team score of 28.237 the USA dropped down to rank 3. Japan overtook them with the highest team score on rings, 29.124. Romania also with a strong team performance on rings (28.962) which brought them to the 1st place after this rotation. - China still on rank 4.
Olympic Champion Alexei Nemov had a fall on pommel horse – and gone was Russia’s dream of a medal, they dropped down to rank 6.
Standing at half time:
 1. ROM 86,935
2. JAP 86,510
3. USA 86,424
4. CHN 85,621
5. KOR 85,449
6. RUS 84,022
7. GER 82,974
8. UKR 82,272
4th rotation
The Romanians improved their lead on vault, starting with Selariu with 9.525, followed by Suciu with 9.675 and Dragulescu who despite of heavily rowing with his arms in order to stick the landing received the score of 9.825. – A great team score of 29.025.
China’s performances were led by Li, Xiaopeng with 9.725 but they remained behind Japan and the USA on the 4th rank…
5th rotation
Romania kept their lead on bars with 144.422 narrowly in front of Japan (144.359) and the USA (144.294)…
Corea managed to reach the 4th place, overtaking China…
On parallel bars China’s Teng, Haibin overrotated one basket 1/1 turn. He had 1/4 of a turn too much and fell a bit to the side. The judges saw this as a swing in between and also the bonus for this element was gone… China dropped down to rank 5.
6th and FINAL rotation:

 This final rotation was a true thriller in the Olympic Hall:
In a dramatic situation on high bar Romania’s Selariu came to close to the bar on his “Def” and fell down… was this the loss of the gold medal…?
Marius Urzica was the last gymnast. He kept his nerves after Sucia scored only 9.2 and presented a great routine which probably secured Romania’s bronze medal!
Now everyone was looking to the US team: Brett McClure started with a good routine and also the twins Morgan and Paul Hamm didn’t make any visible mistakes – however, Paul Hamm left out the third flight element in a combination which dropped his start value to 9.7, nonetheless he received the score of 9.462!
Would this mistake be allowed in the battle for gold…?

Kashima - in a golden last rotation for Japan

This now depended on the performance of the Japanese team:
Yoneda started with 9.787 – then high bar World Champion Kashima with 9.825, and unbelievably Tomita even managed to top this score! He risked a Kovacs 1/1 turn and received the highest score of 9.850 which secured the Japanese team the first team gold medal after 28 years since Montreal 1976!!
China had more bad luck with a fall from Teng, Haibing on his layout Jaeger 1/1 turn and the Olympic Champion from 2000 ended up on rank 5.

1. JPN 173,821 - OLYMPIC VICTORY!!
2. USA 172, 933
3. ROM 172,384
 4. KOR 171,841
5. CHN 171,257
6. RUS 169,808
7. UKR 168,244
8. GER 167,372.
>> ...Detailled team results