Canada claims silver in men’s artistic gymnastics team event at FISU Games
After leading the standings following the opening session, Canada held strong through the remaining rotations to capture a silver medal in the men’s artistic gymnastics team competition at the 2025 FISU World University Games.
Competing early in the day on Tuesday, Team Canada posted a total of 239.593 points, which stood atop the leaderboard until powerhouse Japan overtook them in the final session on Wednesday night with a cumulative score of 252.027.
“The feeling yesterday was good. We were still first at the end of the day, so it was a nice feeling and we were feeling confident about that, but we knew the last subdivision, the one that just went was a strong team event group,” said William Emard (Laval, Que. / UQAM). “We knew it was not done until the last division so we knew we had to wait a lot of time today. It was a long wait. We competed yesterday and we’re getting the medal today, but it’s so deserved by all the guys over there and they worked really hard for that medal.”
It marks Canada’s best men’s team finish in recent FISU history and came on the back of standout performances and consistency across all six apparatus.
Team Canada’s event breakdown included:
· Floor: 38.466 (12th)
· Pommel Horse: 38.933 (7th)
· Rings: 40.432 (3rd)
· Vault: 41.432 (6th)
· Parallel Bars: 39.298 (8th)
· Horizontal Bar: 41.032 (2nd)
Leading the charge were Emard and Ioannis Chronopoulos (Milton, Ont. / Nebraska), who finished first and second overall in the all-around qualification standings.
Emard posted a total score of 82.899, highlighted by a 14.066 on floor and 13.800 on parallel bars, both ranking among the top three of the day. He also delivered a 13.700 on rings and a 13.600 on high bar.
Chronopoulos followed closely with a score of 82.532, delivering the top pommel horse score of the entire competition at 14.166. He also scored 13.833 on floor and 13.733 on rings, showcasing his all-around strength.
“I thought the team did really well in staying together, just keeping motivated, keeping each other motivated,” said Chronopoulos. “It was a real big team effort. From the first event, we had a couple mess-ups, so we really made sure to not let the energy leave us, and just carry it through the second, third, fourth and so on events. And then by the end, we realized we put together a really good showing.”
In individual apparatus finals, Felix Dolci (Sainte-Anne-des-Lacs, Que. / LaSalle College) advanced to the floor and horizontal bar finals, while Emard qualified for the rings final.
The all-around finals are on Friday, while the individual apparatus finals are Saturday.