ROTTERDAM, Netherlands — The best thing the U.S. men can say is that this one doesn’t count.

The Americans are in fourth place after their qualifying session at the world gymnastics championships on Saturday, Oct. 17, and are assured of dropping at least one spot with perennial powerhouse China still to come in the last two sessions. But all they had to do was get into the team final, which they will, and scores will reset.

The U.S. men could be a hot mess all over again in the team final, which is Tuesday, Oct. 20. Or they could wind up on the podium, qualifying for 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in the process.

The beauty is both are equally possible.

“We knew coming in here we have a shot,” said Frederick Richard, the lone holdover from the U.S. team that won the bronze medal at the Paris Olympics. “Nothing’s a surprise today — results wise, scoring wise. We know exactly what need to do to have success here and that hasn’t changed.

“I guess that’s refreshing to know,” Richard added, “that we really just have to go and have an average day. Today was very below average.”

Major errors on multiple events

Teams get to drop the lowest of their four scores in qualifying, and the Americans had to count at least one routine with a major error on three of the six events.

Danila Leykin fell off parallel bars and Richard sat on the rails. On floor exercise, Richard had a three-tenths deduction for a repeated element and Kameron Nelson nearly landed his last pass on his face and had to stumble forward to keep from falling. Leykin and Shane Wiskus both fell on pommel horse.

There also were minor mistakes — sloppy landings, bent arms, less-than-perfect body positions — everywhere but vault and high bar.

It could have been worse if pommel horse specialist Patrick Hoopes hadn’t come through with the third-best routine so far on the event.

“Not my best routine but should be enough to get me in the final and help out what the team needed me to do in that situation,” Hoopes said. “That’s what I’m here for. I’m here so we can have guys mess up on pommel horse and then I can put up a score to balance that out.”

Reason for optimism

Despite all that, the Americans were just 3.2 points behind Russia, which has a full team at the world championships for the first time since 2019. They’re about 5.5 points behind Britain, which is second behind Japan right now.

Japan scored 254.529. Oka Shinnosuke and Hashimoto Daiki, the last two Olympic champions, respectively, are 1-2 in the all-around.

Take away the falls and clean up the sloppiness, and there’s no reason the Americans can’t be on the podium and get the spot for a full team at the Los Angeles Olympics that goes to each of the medalists, too.

“Certainly not our best performance. Definitely not our worst,” U.S. coach Syque Caesar said. “Given the misses we had to count and we were almost 246, we have a lot of areas where we can improve on.”

But the stakes will be higher in the team final, where countries put up three gymnasts on each event and all three scores count. Have anything close to the meltdowns they did in qualifying, and the Americans will have no chance at a medal.

“Every experience gets you more prepared for the next,” Richard said.

U.S. won medal in Paris after poor show in qualifying

Richard knows that firsthand.

All anyone remembers from the Paris Olympics is the U.S. men winning the bronze medal, their first at a Summer Games since 2008. What gets forgotten is their struggles in qualifying.

The U.S. men finished fifth in qualifying there, almost 10 points behind Japan and more than three points behind third-place Britain. They had to count a fall on high bar and left the floor littered with errors.

Two days later, they were on the podium.

“We got the job done for qualifications and all of us will get together, recover, strategize and give it everything on team final,” Richard said.

Results matter. But some matter more, and some matter less, than others.