Who is Brody Malone? Gymnast once under fire for supporting Donald Trump leads USA Gymnastics Nationals on Day 1

USA's Brody Malone clinched the top spot on the gymnastics leaderboard at the ongoing 2022 US Gymnastics Championships in Tampa, Florida. Thus, he is living up to his hard-earned reputation that was once under fire for supporting the former US President Donald Trump.

It took the 22-year-old athlete just a single day to prove his prowess in the sport as he performed the horizontal bar routine, taking him to the top. Malone commented after his win, saying:

"I was pretty happy with how it went,...The first two events kind of started slow. I was pretty mad about rings, but you gotta have a short memory. I had five events left, there's no sense in dwelling on it. You gotta put it behind you."

Malone is a 2020 Olympian and 2021 World Championships bronze medallist.

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Who is Brody Malone and why die he become linked with President Trump?

Brody Malone is considered as one of the finest athletes in his field. A 2021 World Championships bronze medalist, Brody started achieving a lot from a very young age.

He is also the US National Champion of 2021. Born in Johnson City, Tennessee, the athlete insists that he had a rather straightforward rise to fame, with no distinct incident to set his origin story apart.

Being an active child, his parents enrolled him in gymnastics at age three. Brody participated in rodeo events such as team roping and jackpots throughout his school life.

His first claim to fame came at the Junior Olympics in 2015. He was placed seventh in the National Championships 2015. However, in the following year, he was placed second, finishing only behind Vitaliy Guimaraes.

After his remarkable stint at the junior level, he became a part of the Stanford Cardinal gymnastics team in 2019. He helped the team win at the NCAA National Championships.

Despite his great professional streak, he had quite a few personal losses over the years. He lost his mother to cancer in 2012. He also lost his stepmother to a brain aneurysm in 2019. Speaking about these experiences, Brody Malone said:

"It helped me realize no matter what happens in your life, you can always move on from it...Not in a way that you forget the past, but that you can always move on and do better. Life goes on whether you like it or not."

However, one of the things that shook the gymnast was the controversy regarding President Donald Trump. His photos of posing at the White House with the former President began circulating on the internet.

These pictures were taken after Malone's win at the 2019 National Championship. In one of the pictures, Malone was seen wearing a tie in support of the then-President.

There was massive hatred generated from these pictures, with many Twitter users calling out the athlete and hoping for his downfall. Speaking about this event, Brody Malone said:

"It’s not like I was trying to hide it...I guess when that came out, I expected there would be hate about it. People have their opinions, there’s nothing wrong with that."

Malone actively continued to excel in his professional career, despite the controversy that shook him. His competitive history reads as follows:

Year	Event	Team	AA	FX	PH	SR	VT	PB	HB
Junior
2015	J.O. National Championships (L9 JE14)		7	14	13	23	18	7	6
2016	J.O. National Championships (L10 JE15)			12	5				5
	U.S. National Championships (15–16)		15	22	24	12	7	20
2017	J.O. National Championships (JE17)
	U.S. National Championships (17–18)						4
	Junior Japan International		4				6	4
2018	RD761 International Junior Team Cup		6				5	6
Senior
2019	NCAA Championships				9	8		4
	Pan American Games		5		4			5
2020	Winter Cup				12
2021	NCAA Championships
	U.S. National Championships			9	4			13
	Olympic Trials				6		6
	Olympic Games	5	10						4
	World Team Trials
	World Championships
2022	Cottbus World Cup					6
	DTB Pokal Team Challenge								5
	MPSF Championships				5		6	11
	NCAA Championships					7	9	34
	Pan American Championships
	U.S. Classic			4			9

Hopefully, Brody will continue to impress with his exceptional skillset. With the Paris Olympics just around two years away, he would also be someone looked at as a medal hope by his country.