Former University of Oklahoma gymnast Alex Naddour earned the bronze medal in the men’s individual pommel horse final Sunday afternoon during the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
It's the first medal in the event for the United States since Tim Daggett also took bronze in 1984.
“I keep thinking, ‘Wake up.’ I feel like I’m dreaming,” Naddourtold SoonerSports.com. “This is exactly what I wanted since I was a young kid, to go out and hit a great routine, score the highest I’ve ever scored in my life out of country. And at the Olympic Games. It doesn’t get much better than that.”
OUr bronze medalist! Alex, rocking a horse set & stepping up HUGE in biggest meet of his life #Respect #SoonersInRio pic.twitter.com/x09feafznl
— Mark Williams (@wellsgymn) August 14, 2016
Naddour served as an alternate for the U.S. team at the 2012 Olympics in London, and earned back-to-back individual NCAA championships on the pommel horse in 2010 and 2011. He also earned All-American honors in the all-around, and on pommel horse and vault.
The 25-year-old Arizona native finished seventh in pommel horse qualifying in Rio, and the U.S. hadn’t medaled in the 2016 Games until Sunday evening. The Americans finished fifth in the team competition. Individually, Naddour’s teammates Chris Brooks and Sam Mikulak did not medal in the all-around. Mikuklak finished eighth in floor on Sunday, while Naddour’s former OU teammate Jake Dalton finished sixth.
An American gymnast hasn’t medaled in an event final since 2008, when former OU gymnast Jonathan Horton won a silver medal in the horizontal bar final in Beijing.
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