Shane Wiskus, Stephen Nedoroscik and Yul Moldauer compete at Phoenix U.S. Gymnastics Championships; Olympics not sole motive; love of sport.

2026 U.S. Gymnastics Championships: LA28 isn’t the only thing keeping USA’s veterans going

Shane Wiskus, Stephen Nedoroscik and Yul Moldauer all pointed past the home Games to what really pulls them back to the gym.

A home Olympic Games would be reason enough.

For the veterans of the U.S. men’s gymnastics program, it isn’t the only one.

The Olympic Games LA28 sits two years out, the biggest thing on the horizon for the sport in this country. Back on the national stage at the U.S. Championships in Phoenix, three big-name returners made clear the Games are part of the pull – but nowhere near the whole of it.

" It might have been a factor to entice me to come back, but it was not at all the reason to come ," said Shane Wiskus , the Tokyo 2020 Olympian back at his 11th U.S. Championships. " For me, it was more of a personal conviction and a personal desire to do gymnastics ."

Wiskus hadn’t competed since the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials until this February, when he returned at Winter Cup. He missed qualifying to nationals there and had to earn his spot back at the U.S. qualifier in June. What pulled him through it was a feeling, not a medal.

“It’s more the feeling that I got after Olympic trials, when I had the two best days of gymnastics in my entire life,” he said. " Those are the moments that I’m chasing . It’s not the Olympics, although that would be nice."

For Stephen Nedoroscik – a two-time bronze medalist at Paris 2024 and the pommel horse specialist who became a breakout star there – the home Games are historic, a team that could be remembered forever. They are also not the thing keeping him in the gym through hip surgery last October, a shoulder injury three months ago and routines back in his hands only two weeks ago.

“It might entice me to really want to make that team a little bit more,” he said, “but at the end of the day, my goal is to do this sport as long as my body allows it. I actually love what I’m doing. This is my passion. This is my life .”

Yul Moldauer , competing as a senior for more than a decade, put the Games in the same place.

“The Olympics are going to be in Los Angeles, and it’s very special,” he said. “But even if it was somewhere else, I would still come back to the sport.”

Wiskus is 11 U.S. Championships into a career he knows has an end.

“I can’t do gymnastics forever, so if my body allows it, then why would I not try to continue to follow my dreams as long as I can?” he said. " Now I’m just doing it because I love it ."