Out of the half-dozen countries Brody Malone has explored this year, his favorite was France.
That just so happens to be where he’s aiming to succeed in 2024 as well, in the Paris Olympics.
“This is my first year traveling a lot,” said the Stanford fifth-year senior gymnast. “I haven’t really had a break since last year. It’s been quite a year.”
At the Paris World Challenge Cup in September, Malone won gold on horizontal bar with a score of 14.650 and claimed silver on parallel bars at 14.600, defeating both 2020 Olympic silver medalist Tin Srbic of Croatia and 2022 European horizontal bar champion Marios Georgiou of Cyprus.
He enters the upcoming World Championships in Liverpool, England, as a favorite. Men ’s qualification is on Monday, with the team final on Wednesday and all-around final Nov. 4.
The 22-year-old from Georgia has quickly become the U.S. squad’s centerpiece in a sport that is running out of stars due to the NCAA decline.
Malone has accomplished nearly every feat as a gymnast except for Olympic gold. His one Olympics appearance in 2021 was a downer, not from performance — but because of COVID lockdowns in Japan that took away from the experience.
“I want to experience the real thing,” Malone said of the Olympics. “I’ve talked to (USA gymnast) Shane (Wiskus) about London and Rio and he said it’s completely different…. I want to experience the real thing and be a part of it.”
In the last calendar year, he won the 2022 Pan American Championships and 2022 Cottbus World Cup, and took third at the 2021 World Championships in Kitakyushu, Japan. Malone said only downtime was following an ankle scope earlier this year.
Not many people would fit Malone’s profile. A gymnast and rodeo-goer, Malone is a southern boy who grew up on SEC football and roping. Both his parents were rodeo riders, and his brother, Cooper, is on the rodeo team at West Alabama. His mother, Tracy, died in 2012 from breast cancer.
His parents had put him in gymnastics when he was 3 years old to get some of his energy out. By age 8, he was watching the Olympics and dreaming about representing Team USA.
The native of Summerville, Georgia, city of 5,000 that’s about 10 miles from the Alabama border, Malone spent summers frog-gigging and turkey hunting. California has been a different challenge, but more so the NCAA. Participating in a small sport makes the competition pool that much more difficult.
His first few college seasons sharpened him enough to defeat six-time national champion Sam Mikulak before he made the Olympic squad, coming from relative obscurity. That was the first time he found himself in the center of attention, a space he has gotten used to.
“I was on the junior national team for the first time when I was 15,” he said. “That kind of prepared me…. It’s all been an honor.”
Malone knows USA Gymnastics is looking to him as their hope in a sport that has seen its talent pool diminish, and he’s driven by the pursuit of a gold medal.
Though the sport has hemorrhaged programs since the 1990s, Malone still holds a soft spot for the college competition, which is why returning for a fifth year at Stanford was a no-brainer.
“I always wanted to do this in college,” he said. “Ever since I was in middle school, I thought about the NCAA. That was really motivating. I love having a team atmosphere.”
That has been to the benefit of Stanford, which has won three national titles in his four years. The one year without a championship was a COVID postseason cancellation.
Unlike women’s gymnasts, the bulk of successful men’s gymnasts come from the NCAA, despite a dwindling landscape. Wiskus, a former U.S. champion, saw his Minnesota program cut in 2021 after a legacy of 118 years. Only 17 teams remain in the entire NCAA with two additions to Division III at the start of this season, making it the smallest NCAA sport.
The NCAA could cut men’s gymnastics entirely if it wanted to because of its rule that states “A championship shall be discontinued automatically at the conclusion of the academic year in which it falls below the applicable minimum sponsorship number set.” That number is 40 for men’s sports.
Stanford’s program has thrived, even while the school threatened cuts to 11 other programs before reinstatement last summer. Along with Malone, the Cardinal is also represented on Team USA by Asher Hong and Colt Walker.
“He has all the traits of a successful competitor,” said Stanford assistant gymnastics coach Mark Freeman. “It’s a privilege to watch someone of Brody’s caliber.”
The NCAA struggles have left USA without a wide talent pool as it tries to reclaim prominence on the international stage. The Olympic squad finished outside of a medal for the third consecutive time in Tokyo, placing fifth. Optimism about a return to the podium has rested on Malone, who was fourth in the horizontal bar and 10th in the all-around in his debut Games.
Between his limited downtime in Summerville and packed training schedule, Malone doesn’t think too much about the pressure. He’s happy to enjoy the ride in his last season with the Cardinal, and preparing for what’s inevitably next as the face of men’s gymnastics.
“I think (the NCAA) is a great tool for USA Gymnastics to get a better chance of getting on the podium,” Malone said. “A lot of guys on the national team are training (at Stanford), so pushing those guys and those guys pushing me can lead to a better season, but also with Team USA.”
Marisa Ingemi is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: marisa.ingemi@sfchronicle.com
