Before Brody Malone found his way to the top of men’s gymnastics in the United States, he had to do a very typical teenager thing.
Get through high school.
While conquering the high bar and rings was never a problem for the soon-to-be two-time Olympian, earning his diploma from Trion High School while maintaining a demanding training schedule was perhaps Malone’s most challenging balancing act.
To be honest, the folks at Trion didn’t really know what they had on their hands when Brody Malone first showed up in time for his junior year in 2016.
It didn’t take them long, however, to find out and now, despite having spent just two years there, the people in Chattooga County proudly claim him as one of their own — even presenting him with a key to the city of Summerville two years ago.
The fact that he’s currently the country’s most accomplished male gymnast is just part of it.
“His talent is incredible, but what has always stood out to me was how dedicated and goal-driven he was,” Trion principal Bryan Edge said. “He was a brilliant kid. It would have been very hard without being the student he was to be able to do what he did.”
Added Spanish teacher Connie Payne, “He’s always been one of those kids everybody roots for. Whomever he’s touched will tell you the same thing.”
TRAGEDIES & TRANSITIONS
Brody Malone was born in Johnson City, Tennessee, the first born of John “JD” and Tracy Malone, who met through their involvement in rodeo.
The family, which would later include a pair of younger brothers and a sister, moved to Cedartown, Georgia, when Brody was 3. It wasn’t long before he was riding horses, roping calves and learning how to bow hunt.
The typical southern boy, however, also loved to tumble, do backflips and walk on his hands, thanks to Tracy’s decision to enroll the energetic youngster in gymnastics when they arrived in Cedartown.
Brody Malone competes in the floor exercise at the United States Gymnastics Olympic Trials in june. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)Of course, that decision would change everything and lead to a career that so far includes a junior national championship, seven US national titles — three all-around championships (2021, 2022, 2024), two high bar titles, one floor title and one in the vault — to go along with two world championship medals (bronze on the high bar in 2021 and gold on high bar in 2022) and a 10th-place all-around finish at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
From tumbling as a tot to securing a spot in next week’s Paris Olympic Games, though, every athletic triumph in Brody Malone’s life has been tempered by tragedy, including the loss of his mother to breast cancer in 2012 and later the death of his stepmother, Lynn Johnson-Malone, in 2019 to a brain aneurysm.
It was Johnson who brought the family to Summerville. A widow and mother of a son and daughter, she owned a home in the area and, after marrying JD, moved the Malones into the house in 2014.
Meanwhile, Brody’s gymnastics had taken a serious turn the year before with a move to Twisters Gymnastics in Cartersville, where the coaching team of Andrei, Louiza and Yuri Kouznetsov would begin to unlock his vast potential.
BECOMING A CHAMPION
Malone had progressed as much as he could in the small Paulding County gym where he began his gymnastics journey. Fortunately for the Malones, the city-owned facility in Cartersville just happened to have a coaching staff full of international experience.
Husband and wife Andrei and Louiza and son Yuri, Russian emigrants, weren’t really sure what they were getting in the 13-year-old Malone.
“He was very talented, but very raw,” said Yuri Kouznetsov. “The first few months we got his basics down and his form right. It didn’t take very long. We worked on little things and he took to learning the skills very easily.”
Two years later Malone competed in his first national competition and placed inside the overall top 20. His coaches were thrilled. Brody, well, not so much.
“After that, we felt we had something special, but Brody was very upset at getting top 20,” Kouznetsov said. “Even then, his goal was to be No. 1 and that meet just motivated him even more to get there.”
The work in the gym ramped up, where the focus became shoring up the weakest parts of his skills. At 5-foot-5 and much more stocky than the lean build normally prevalent in world championship gymnasts, Malone had to put in extra work on the pommel, where his physique limited his routine.
Instead of settling on being average, Malone and his coaches went to work.
“I told him one day that if you want to get better on the pommel, which is my favorite event, start with doing 50 circles every day on it,” Yuri recalled. “From that day on he did that.
Contributed photo / Brody Malone, second from right, celebrates with members of the Trion High School staff after receiving a key to the city of Summerville in April of 2021. From left is Trion athletic director Jason Lanham and teachers Connie Payne and Stephanie Walker.“He was always willing to work. I remember after his mother died — and she was always his biggest fan — he was back in the gym two days later. People were crying all around him and he was just ready to make her proud and get back to work.”
His second trip to the junior championships showcased the results of the hard work as Malone placed second overall, losing by a margin of .15 of a point.
“That was an insanely small margin to lose by and it haunted him,” Kouznetsov said. “He wrote ‘.15’ on everything to remind him, and the next year he won it by three points.
“Nobody knew who he was, but that opened everyone’s eyes.”
Including, it seems, the nation’s top collegiate gymnastics programs. When powerhouse Stanford eventually offered, Malone’s answer was a quick yes.
But things have never been easy for Malone, who was about to face one of the biggest hurdles of his career.
THE JUGGLING ACT
While Malone wanted Stanford and Stanford wanted him, making it happen wasn’t that easy.
An elite academic institution, Stanford has strict enrollment requirements. Malone, who had been homeschooled since the family moved to Summerville so that he could maintain his daily training, had some academic catching up to do.
“When they came and talked to us about enrolling, being able to get his AP course credits while still being able to train was the challenge,” Edge said. “He wanted to go to Stanford and he wanted to be in the Olympics, so we put a plan together.
“It was obvious from the start that this was a very dedicated young man and we knew that he was the kind of person you want in your school, so if there was any way to make it work, we would.”
The plan was for Malone to attend school until noon and then make the hour-plus drive to the Twisters’ facility. Before and after he would have to study. Hard.
“It was hard for him,” said Stephanie Walker, who taught AP Calculus. “We spent a lot of time together when he was there. He was there before school started and he would spend most of his built-in break time studying in my room, trying to catch up.”
Malone’s coaches understood and, already knowing his work ethic, never doubted his resolve.
“He was very stressed out — and Stanford really wanted him — but his AP classes weren’t there yet,” Kouznetsov said. “With Brody, he works as hard as he can to get there in everything he does. It was amazing to see how many classes he was taking at one time. He never really complained about it; he just did it.”
Contributed photo / Brody Malone, right, receives a key to the city from Summerville mayor Harry Harvey in April of 2021.Most of the folks at Trion didn’t know about the gymnastics at first. That changed when word got out about the junior national championship, news that also helped the reserved Malone make friends at the small-town school.
“Sometimes I would walk into my room and there he would be doing a handstand on the desk, walking on his hands because the kids had asked him to do it,” laughed Spanish teacher Connie Payne. “I would say, ‘Brody, get off the desk,’ and all the kids would groan.
“People always wanted him to do handstands and tumble and at one of our pep rallies his senior year he was asked to perform. It was very impressive and, if they didn’t know already, the students knew then that he was a star.”
The star still needed his credits, though, and a ramped-up gymnastics schedule wasn’t making it easy, including an overseas trip for an important meet early in his senior year.
“The first time I really found out about the gymnastics was when he came to tell me he was going to Japan for a competition and would have to miss two weeks,” Walker said. “I remember telling him calculus is not something you should miss, but he did the work while he was gone.
“He knew what he wanted to do and he did whatever it took to get there.”
ONE MORE CHALLENGE
Malone’s path to stardom stayed steady. Elite coaching at Stanford and his work ethic led to NCAA superstardom and to the 2021 Tokyo games.
Not satisfied with a 10th-place overall finish and a minor mistake that cost him an individual high bar medal at his Olympic debut, Malone was hungry to make the Paris games — which would come at the peak of his career — his crowning moment.
As usual, though, it could never be quite that simple.
While competing on the high bar in Germany in March of last year, just months after winning the gold in the event at the World Championships, one of Malone’s grips slipped off during his dismount.
He landed with his right leg facing outward, his knee ravaged so badly that one of his current coaches, Syque Caesar, labeled the injury “catastrophic.”
“Many people who aren’t Brody Malone probably would have retired from the sport,” Caesar said in an interview with the Associated Press. “For anyone else, it could have been career-ending for sure.”
That, however, isn’t Malone’s style. After three surgeries and basically learning how to walk again, he began training with a goal of at least competing in enough events at the 2024 national championships to qualify for the Olympic trials.
He did much more than that, pushing himself to the point where he was comfortable including the floor exercise and vault — the two most stressful events on the legs — into his routine.
The result was a stunning all-around title in early June, followed by a strong showing at the Olympic trials just three weeks later, where he secured a spot on Team USA and will have a legitimate shot at an individual and team medal when competition begins on Saturday, July 27.
Malone even allowed himself to celebrate a bit following the national championships.
“With everything I’ve gone through, to be able to make a comeback like I have and be competitive enough to be on top again, it feels amazing,” he told the Associated Press after the competition.
“I hate to lose. I’m not going to come just to participate. I want to win.”
Yuri Kouznetsov will never doubt him.
“I’ve never seen a person injured that badly come back like he has,” he said. “The knee has so many things going on and he tore all of them. It’s amazing that he’s back where he is physically, but the mentality is also incredible. The whole thing is just unimaginable.
“He could have retired after that injury and still had a great, great career, but he’s driven to win an Olympic medal and, most of all, he wants to win one with his teammates. After all he’s gone through, who’s going to doubt him?”
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com