Photo: Brandon Nguyen - Inside Gymnastics/Lloyd Smith

The Overview

The 2024 Winter Cup Competition is set to take place in Louisville, Kentucky later this year. 

A maximum of 48 athletes will be eligible to compete for their chance to earn a spot on the Senior National Team. The 32 athletes prequalified athletes are listed below:

Jeremy Bischoff, 

Landen Blixt*,

Cameron Bock,

Garrett Braunton, 

Taylor Burkhart, 

Taylor Christopulos,

Matt Cormier,

Caden Clinton, 

Alex Diab, 

Isaiah Drake,

Dallas Hale, 

Asher Hong*, 

Xander Hong, 

Paul Juda*, 

Joshua Karnes*,

Ian Lasic-Ellis,

Riley Loos,

Brody Malone,

Kiran Mandava,

Yul Moldauer*,

Stephen Nedoroscik,

Kameron Nelson,

Petrosyan, Vahe,

Curran Phillips, 

Frederick Richard*,

Ian Skirkey,**

Blake Sun,

Kai Uemera,

Colt Walker*,

Donnell Whittenburg,

Shane Wiskus,

Khoi Young*,

*Indicates those who are prequalified to the Winter Senior National Team. 

** Has retired and wont' be competing

The Documentation

Fifteen all-around athletes will have the opportunity to qualify via five events including Beach Blast Invitational, Rocky Mountain Open, Stanford Open, West Point Open, and Windy City Invitational. Additional spots may be allocated via petitions for injuries, extenuating circumstances, and for event specialists. 

According to the U.S. Men’s Program documentation, “A petition may also be submitted (by January 30, 2024) for an Individual Event specialist who achieves a D score at one of the designated qualifying competitions that would have ranked within the top eight (8) finalists from the 2023 World Championships Qualifications as listed below: Vault must be a two-score average. Floor (6.0); Pommel Horse (6.0); Rings (5.8); Vault (5.2 Avg; Parallel Bars (6.0); and High Bar (5.4).Full Qualification Procedures can be found here.

Potential Qualifiers

Here are a list of athletes who have a high potential to qualify to Winter Cup from each of the respective qualifiers. 

Beach Blast Invitational

• Ian Gunther (Stanford Boys)

• Evan Hymanson (Bay Area Bandits)

• Ian Sandoval (EVO)

Rocky Mountain Open

• Fuzzy Benas (Oklahoma)

• Oliver Zavel (Air Force)

• Sam Phillips (Nebraska)

• Maxim Bereznev (Oklahoma)

Stanford Open

• Noah Newfeld (California)

• Brandon Nguyen  (Stanford)

• David Shamah (Stanford)

West Point Open

• Michael Artlip (Penn State)

• Landon Simpson (Penn State)

• Joseph Buselmeier (Army)

Windy City Invitational

• Pierce Wolfgang (Michigan)

• Rithik Puri (Michigan)

Based on the amount of prequalified athletes (32) , the fact that Ian Skirkey has retired, and the 15 athletes from the qualifers, there are only two available petition spots. It’s possible that prequalified athletes from the Senior Development Team or from the 2023 World Championships Team may not compete Truthfully, with 46 all-arounders qualifying, you could add 12 more one-event specialists and it wouldn’t disrupt the timing of the event, but the men’s program may not choose to move in that direction.  Based on past performance, here are some of the athletes that will likely be considered through petitions as event specialists.

Floor

• Connor McCool (6.0)

PH:

• Ignacio Yockers (6.4)

• Patrick Hoopes (6.4)

• Brandon Dang (6.3)

SR: 

• Javier Alfonso (5.8)

• Ashton Anaya (5.8)

VT: None

PB:

• JR Chou (6.0)

HB: 

• Crew Bold (5.6)

• Brandon Briones (5.8)

Because there is no scheduled qualifying event to the Summer National Championships, the 2024 Winter Cup will play a key role in allowing people to qualify for the 2024 Olympics. The only other way to qualify to the Olympics may come through the 2024 NCAA Championships, and therefore earning a birth from Winter Cup will be crucial.

Live stream links for each competition can be found on our NCAA Schedule page and our International Elite Calendar.

Article by: Kensley Behel

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