All-Around Champion Riley Loos

Going into Winter Cup, Riley Loos was a wild card. After finishing his NCAA career in 2023, he continued competing elite in 2024 and had some early successes in the year, but ultimately fell short of making it to the U.S. Olympic Trials. 

More recently, Loos had a great showing at the Stanford open in January of this year, but gymnastics is all about hitting on the day. And that’s exactly what he did. Loos led the pack on Day 1 and came away with a first-place finish, showing off the power of clean gymnastics, particularly on floor and rings, for which he won individual gold medals. Though he only showed one vault and was thus ineligible for the vault title, it’s notable that Loos’ day one front handspring randi was the highest scoring single vault of the competition.

Frederick Richard

One of the biggest non-gymnastics topics of conversation this weekend had to do with Frederick Richard. Richard is currently one of the US’s most high profile gymnasts and he has historically used his media attention and his own social media presence to promote the sport and promote diversity within the sport.

Richard’s most recent foray into changing the sport was his debut of a new gymnastics uniform, which consists of a jersey, loser shorts, and tights, as opposed to the traditional singlet with shorts or pommel horse pants on bottom. Richard’s uniform was not only for show, however, as it was outside of the standard uniforms allowed by the Code of Points. Accordingly, he incurred -0.3 points of neutral deductions on each day of the competition just for wearing this uniform. This deduction did not change the outcome of the meet, but it is notable that it certainly has the potential to change competition outcomes moving forward.

Outside of the neutral deductions related to his uniform, Richard was not at his best this weekend. He typically marries high difficulty with high execution, however, this weekend, his execution was below his standard. Regardless, Richard had enough difficulty to compensate and he pretty handily earned the silver medal in the all-around. He also won bronze medals on high bar and parallel bars

Rounding Out the All-Around

Taylor Christopulos very narrowly came away with the bronze medal. While he is best known for his high bar skills, he showed some really beautiful floor work, though a couple of out-of-bounds deductions got in his way. His y-scale on day one was far and away one of the best of the competition. Gymnasts looking to not only meet the scale requirement but achieve what the code envisions artistically with the requirement should look to Taylor’s scale as a guiding light.

Some other All-Around highlights include Taylor Burkhart and Jun Iwai, who were very close to getting on the podium. These athletes are certainly two to watch as they continue their elite seasons.

Battle Pommel Horse

These days, no domestic US MAG competition is complete without a pommel horse showdown. It’s a specialist-heavy event and is often the one place in the US system where a specialist can shine and make World and Olympic teams. 

Without Stephen Nedoroscik there, the four main contenders in the pommel horse competition were Brandon Dang, Patty Hoopes, Ignacio Yockers, and Parker Thackston. 

Though Parker Thackson led the pack on day 1, he had a fall on day 2 that pushed him off the podium and into fifth place. Ignacio Yockers also had a fall on day 2, but his 14.05 from day 1 helped him quite handily take home the bronze.

Patty Hoopes (Paris 2024 Olympic non-traveling alternate) had a slightly rougher-than-usual set on day 1 and improved on day 2, taking home silver. 

And as things tend to go in pommel horse, Brandon Dang was the only person to hit both sets and accordingly took home the gold. While Preston Ngai, who is not as competitive in terms of difficulty score, put up two nice sets and managed to slot into fourth place, though he was still nearly three tenths from getting on the podium.

Other Highlights

As aforementioned, Riley Loos took home the gold on floor. Jun Iwai and Jesse-Lee Pakele took home silver and bronze respectively. Jun Iwai had the second-highest difficulty score of the competition after Kameron Nelson. And Jesse-Lee Pakele’s Day 1 execution score was the highest of both days of floor competition.

Though he did not medal, it’s impossible to talk about floor and not mention Kameron Nelson. Kameron is currently competing with two triple backs in his routine, which is absolutely groundbreaking. Though he had some landing issues, an under-control routine should earn a massive score.

Moving to rings, Riley Loos earned gold, Alex Diab earned silver, and Matthew Underhill earned bronze. Loos and Diab tied in score, but using the execution tie-breaker, Loos won. 

This year, four gymnasts competed for the vault title, which is about three more than usual. Nartey Brady (a junior) took home the title with some really impressive vaulting. He is certainly one to look out for. Kameron Nelson, who historically has taken the gold on this title, earned the silver. Brandon Nguyen walked away with the bronze.

Colt Walker took home the parallel bar title. Though he’s been dealing with injuries on and off over the past couple of years, long-time MAG followers likely would’ve predicted this win given the field of competitors. Brandon Nguyen and Frederick Richard earned silver and bronze respectively.

Finally, Crew Bold earned the high bar title, followed closely by Drake Andrews. Frederick Richard, who had a bit of an off showing on both days, earned bronze in large part due to his difficulty score.

Senior National Team

• Taylor Burkhart

• Taylor Christopulos

• Tate Costa

• Brandon Dang

• Alex Diab

• Asher Hong

• Patty Hoopes

• Jun Iwai

• Paul Juda

• Josh Karnes

• Riley Loos

• Brody Malone

• Kiran Mandava

• Stephen Nedoroscik

• Alex Nitache

• Frederick Richard

• Kai Uemura

• Colt Walker

• Donnell Whittenburg

• Shane Wiskus

• Khoi Young

Article by: Matt Woodward

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