American gymnasts enjoy comeback story at worlds
STUTTGART, Germany -- Take that.
After hearing for a year how bad they are, how they might not even make it to next summer's Beijing Olympics, the U.S. men silenced everyone with an impressive performance at the world gymnastics championships Tuesday.
Not only were they good enough to secure a spot in Beijing, they earned themselves a repeat performance in Thursday night's team finals.
"It's hugely satisfying," team captain David Durante said. "When this is your passion, this is your life's work, and you hear people say you're not very good at what you do, it's frustrating.
"It really fueled us. It is a sense of relief to be able to say, 'Look at us. We can compete with anyone in the world.' And we're going to do that."
With 364 points, the Americans were fourth behind China, Japan and Germany. They had only three notable errors in 30 routines -- that's fewer than they had on some single events last year. All of their scores were safely in the 14s and 15s, and Jonathan Horton stood ninth overall.
The top 12 teams qualify for Beijing, and the top eight get to come back Thursday for a try at a team medal.