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Rio Olympics: Team USA in Men’s Gymnastics Is Really Team Oklahoma

By Chip Rouse

Feb 9, 2015; Norman, OK, USA; An Oklahoma Sooners cheerleader performs during a timeout against Iowa State Cyclones during the second half at Lloyd Noble Center. Oklahoma won 94-83. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 9, 2015; Norman, OK, USA; An Oklahoma Sooners cheerleader performs during a timeout against Iowa State Cyclones during the second half at Lloyd Noble Center. Oklahoma won 94-83. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-USA TODAY Sports /
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Team USA in men’s gymnastics trails front-runner and defending Olympic champion China by less than one-tenth of a point heading into the men’s team finals competition Monday night at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.

It could be just as easy and accurate to call the USA men’s gymnastics squad Team Oklahoma, given that three members of the five-man U.S. team plus the head coach all have ties to the University of Oklahoma.

Two members of the U.S. men’s team qualified for the all-around finals, and one of the two is former Oklahoma gymnast and All-American Chris Brooks, who finished 19th in the qualifying round on Saturday. Brooks was at OU from 2005-09 and was a member of the 2008 Sooner national championship squad.

A pair of other former Sooner gymnasts qualified on Saturday for individual event finals later this week. Jake Dalton (2010-12) will be competing in the floor exercise finals and Alex Naddour (2010-11) will be competing in the finals on the pommel horse.

This is Dalton’s second Summer Olympic Games. He was a member of the men’s team that finished fifth in the team competition at the 2012 London Games. While at Oklahoma, Dalton was the NCAA All-Around champion in 2012.

Naddour was a two-time NCAA champion on the pommel horse while at Oklahoma.

Veteran Oklahoma men’s coach Mark Williams, who just finished his 17th season at OU, is head coach of the Team USA men’s squad. Williams has coached the OU men’s squad to seven national championships and has coached 32 individual national champions and 182 All-Americans. Additionally, Oklahoma has had three Nissen-Emery Award winners, recognizing the nation’s most outstanding senior gymnast, under Williams’ watch.

This is Williams’ fifth Olympics, but his first as head coach. He was an assistant coach on the U.S. men’s team in 1996 and was a personal coach in 2004, 2008 and the 2012 Games in London.

Talking about this year’s Olympic squad, Williams said, in a news item posted on the OU athletic website:

"“More than half the guys are guys who I’ve experienced right here in our facility at Oklahoma. They’ve been part of championship teams with Oklahoma, and I’ve worked with them even after they’ve graduated.”"

About being named head coach of Team USA men’s gymnastics for the Rio Summer Games, Williams said:

"“I’m excited about the opportunity. I’d like to feel as if it’s like what I do with my university team, where the guys are so well prepared that the day they go out there, there’s going to be no surprises. They will put everything out on the floor and there’s going to be no regrets.”"

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