To the uninitiated, watching a team gymnastics final is among the most mind-scrambling tasks the Olympic Games has to offer, and that includes competing in them.
Eight teams, six rotations, six apparatus and countless athletes tumbling, twisting, vaulting and somersaulting across the hall at the same time as different sections of crowd cheer and gasp at different bits. You see it all, and see none of it, at once.
So, with tonight’s men’s edition at Paris’s Bercy Arena in mind, here is a little simplifying advice: forget gold, and probably forget silver, too. The heavy expectation is that China and Japan will have those medals between them. The battle for bronze, though, is well and truly on, with the evidence of qualifying suggesting Great Britain have the edge in what should be a thrilling tussle with the US and Ukraine.
It was 12 years ago, in London, that Britain’s men ended a century-long wait for a medal in this event. Max Whitlock is the sole survivor from that team and clear leader of this, seeking a seventh Olympic medal in all even before the priority task of defending his individual pommel horse title later in the week.
Otherwise, though, there has been a broad refresh since the last Olympics, with newcomer Jake Jarman, who travelled to Tokyo as a reserve, joined by Luke Whitehouse and Harry Hepworth, as well Joe Fraser, who is at his second Games.
“We had three people in that team becoming Olympians for the first time and we can take a lot of confidence from that,” Whitlock said after qualifying on Saturday. “We just gel together and we know what we need to do, when to get behind each other and when to chill too.”
The sense ahead of Paris was that Team GB had prioritised solo success with their selection and the approach already looks like bearing fruit, with the group reaching eight individual finals.
“This team has so much depth,” Jarman said. “A lot of people see us as a team of individual specialists, but when we come together, I feel like we can show that we can do well as a collective.”
China, who have not topped the podium in this event since 2012, were outstanding in qualifying, topping the standings on 263.028 points.
Japan, pipped to gold by an agonising margin by the since-banished “Russian Olympic Committee” team at their home Games three years ago, were second, surprisingly almost two-and-a-half points adrift, though that gap could easily be bridged if the reigning all-around champion, Hashimoto Daiki, corrects on an uncharacteristic off-day.
Britain, after successive fourth-placed finishes in Rio and Tokyo, will hope to be right on their tails.
