By Cort Reynolds
American gymnast Alec Yoder came close to earning an Olympic medal after being a late addition to the United States trials competition just over a week before.
Yoder is the grandson of a retired Bluffton optometrist.
Originally left off the national teams, he finished fourth in the Olympic trials pommel horse event July 24 at St. Louis, Missouri to qualify as an individual representative of the American team.
Not until then did he even know for sure that as an event specialist, he could qualify for the Summer Olympics in Japan.
Then on Sunday, August 1 at the Tokyo Olympic Games, Yoder finished sixth in the eight-man pommel horse finals at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre.
In the final round, Yoder totaled a score of 14.566 to miss medaling by three spots. He was bidding to become the first U.S. gymnast to win a gold medal in the pommel horse event in 37 years.
Defending Olympic champion Max Whitlock of Great Britain repeated as gold medalist with a score of 15.583. It was Whitlock's sixth Olympic gymnastics medal.
Chih Khai Lee of Chinese Tapei took silver (15.400) in the pommel horse, while Kazuma Kaya of host nation Japan captured bronze with a score of 14.900.
Russian David Belyavsky (14.833) and Japan's Kohei Kameyama (14.600) finished fourth and fifth, respectively, to come in narrowly ahead of Yoder.
The 24-year old Yoder's Olympic qualifying score of 15.20 was fourth overall, and his 8.80 execution score was second. Yoder is a former Ohio State University gymnast and currently trains at a gym in Columbus, Ohio.
He finished second in pommel horse at the 2021 U.S. Championships, and was invited to the 2021 Olympic Trials at St. Louis.
Yoder was born in Indianapolis, Indiana and was primarily home-schooled before attending Ohio State on a gymnastics scholarship.
Yoder began training in gymnastics at age four and he later competed at the Deveau School of Gymnastics in Fishers, Indiana. Subsequent to that experience, he trained at the Indy School of Gymnastics, and then at InterActive Academy in Zionsville, Indiana.
The pommel horse apparatus itself stems from a wooden horse introduced by the Romans, which they used to teach mounting and dismounting. The Romans then added the event to the ancient Olympic Games, and the basic modern exercises were developed in the early 19th century by Friedrich Ludwig Jahn.
The pommel horse is an artistic gymnastics event typically performed only by male athletes. Originally made of a metal frame with a wooden body and a leather cover, the modern pommel horse has a metal body covered with foam rubber and leather, with plastic handles, which are also called pommels.
The event is considered one of the more difficult men's gymnastic events, with an emphasis on technique over strength. The gymnast supports himself with his hands by holding the pommel handles over the horse, and performs movements with his trunk and legs, such as single or double leg circles and crosses of the legs, without stops.
In the 2021 Olympic team gymnastic standings, the United States qualified fourth behind Japan, China and Russia.
Yoder competed in these Summer Olympics as an individual athlete rather than as a member of the four-man American team. Thus, even if the American team wins a medal, he would not be awarded a medal.
Since the 1984 Olympics, the only U.S. individual medalist on pommel horse has been Alex Naddour, who captured bronze in 2016.
Previous U.S. gymnasts who won gold medals in the pommel horse event - both on American soil - were Peter Vidmar (1984 in Los Angeles), and Anton Heida (1904 in St. Louis).
