SPORTS

Former Ohio State gymnast Alec Yoder to compete in World Championship Finals

The Columbus Dispatch

Gymnast Alec Yoder trained at Ohio State this summer before heading to the Olympics, where he finished sixth on the pommel horse, and then the World Championships.

Former Ohio State All-American Alec Yoder will compete in the pommel horse finals at the 2021 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Kitakyushu, Japan.

Yoder, needing a top-eight finish to advance, scored 15.300 on the apparatus in the qualifying rounds and placed third. He will compete again at 3:10 a.m. Saturday.

Ahead of him were Weng Hao of China and Stephen Nedoroscik of the U.S. No American has ever won a world pommel horse title.

Rob Oller:Man alive! Olympic gymnast Alec Yoder wants more eyeballs on men's gymnastics

Yoder edged out Nedoroscik, who competed collegiately at Penn State, for a spot on the U.S. team as a specialist at the Olympics. In the Tokyo Games, Yoder finished sixth.

Yoder was a 10-time All-American at OSU, including four in pommel horse and three in all-around, and he won the national championship on the pommel horse as a senior in 2019.