Silver medalist gymnast Madison Kocian doesn't let injury slow her down
RIO DE JANEIRO — The doubts crept in despite Madison Kocian’s best efforts. After breaking her tibia in February, the gymnast questioned whether she would make it back in time for the Olympics.
As she stood with a silver medal around her neck in the Rio Olympic Arena on Sunday, she sees now how it helped.
Kocian claimed the medal on the uneven bars, her favorite and best event, at least in part because that injury kept her from peaking too early. She scored a 15.833 to finish behind Russia’s Aliya Mustafina, who won her second consecutive Olympic bars title with a 15.900.
Teammate Gabby Douglas finished seventh in the event.
“I think it only helped me to get to this point and pushed me even harder to want it even more, and now finally my dreams are becoming a reality,” said Kocian.
Kocian missed about six weeks of training and returned to competition in early June. She has progressively improved since then. She had the highest score of her career, a 15.933, in helping the U.S. team to a gold medal last week.
On Sunday, she had the highest execution score with a 9.133.
Both Kocian and Laurent Landi, her longtime coach, said that’s because she’s been progressing well and hasn’t missed a routine in the past two months.
“This was the most consistent that she has been and the most calm,” Landi said. “Under control. She had it.”
Kocian’s performance Sunday marks the end of her competition here, and she will leave to start school and compete for UCLA when she returns home.
The team gold was memorable for the camaraderie and experiences the Final Five have shared, but the uneven bars silver was the culmination of years of hard work Kocian and Landi have put in.
“It’s good to finish this way,” said Landi. “She finally got her Olympic medal at this event, which it’s her favorite of course. But it wasn’t easy. The road was very, very hard. She was young, she was very promising and had a lot of injuries, but overcame all of them and now she is a double medalist at the Olympic Games.”
Kocian wasn’t the only U.S. medalist in the first day of event finals. In addition to Simone Biles’ gold on vault, the Americans won a pommel horse medal for the first time in 32 years.
Alex Naddour claimed bronze in his first Olympics after serving as an alternate in London. It was the first Olympic medal the United States has claimed in that event since Peter Vidmar and Tim Daggett won gold and bronze, respectively, in Los Angeles in 1984.
Jake Dalton and Sam Mikulak finished sixth and eighth, respectively, in the floor final.
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