While the United States women remain a shining example of gymnastics in their sport, the men continue to fall short of the global elite.
After an inconsistent Sunday, the United States men's gymnastics team couldn't rally to medal during the final competition on Monday.
Team USA took fifth, finishing with a score of 268.560. Japan (274.094) won gold, Russia (271.453) took silver and China (271.122) edged Great Britain (269.752) to win bronze.
The U.S. has not medaled in men's team gymnastics since the 1996 Games in Atlanta, and haven't won gold since 1984 in Los Angeles.
The men's team event, which airs on edited tape delay Monday night in the United States, is comprised of vault, rings, parallel bars, pommel horse, floor exercise and horizontal bar. The men's team still has plenty of chances to medal in individual events. They'll be back in competition on Wednesday.
Japan's win was of the come-from-behind variety. After a skittish start, all three of their gymnasts pulled off spectacular routines on vault, scoring above 15 in the process.
From there, they worked their way up and held on to take gold, the country's first in the event since 1976, which at the time completed a four-Olympic sweep for the Japanese men in this event.
