© Qingwei Chen

STUTTGART, Germany, March 20, 2022 – The U.S. team of Karis German (Spring, Texas/World Champions Centre), Katelyn Jong (Allen, Texas/Metroplex Gymnastics), Levi Jung-Ruivivar (Maple Grove, Minn./Twin City Twisters), Riley Loos (El Dorado Hills, Calif./Stanford University), Curran Phillips (Naperville, Ill./Stanford University) and Colt Walker (Cedar Park, Texas/Stanford University) overpowered the team from host-country Germany in a final, head-to-head gold-medal round Sunday at Porsche-Arena to secure the 2022 DTB Pokal Mixed Cup championship. The U.S. squad entered the final round with the top seed, having outscored their German counterparts 158.400-154.150 across three rotations. Italy (153.950) and Canada (152.300) faced off in the bronze-medal pairing.

With scores wiped clean entering the fourth and final rotation, Jong and Jung-Ruivivar delivered the day’s high scores of 14.350 and 13.900 on vault, while Curran (15.050) and Walker (14.650) posted the competition’s top-two scores on parallel bars to lift the U.S. team to the title. They finished with a combined 57.950 to Germany’s 50.450. Italy (53.250) edged Canada (53.050) by two-tenths of a point to claim the bronze.

Teams were comprised of up to three men and up to three women with two athletes designated to compete on each apparatus – all four women’s events and four chosen men’s events. All scores contributed to the cumulative team total.

In the first round, German led the U.S. off on bars with a 13.350. Jung-Ruivivar added a 13.250, and Loos and Walker chipped in with the day’s high scores on floor exercise – 13.300 and 14.200, respectively. During the second rotation, Jong’s 13.250 paced the field on floor, complimented by a 12.600 from Jung-Ruivivar. Phillips and Walker each added an apparatus-high 14.200 on vault. Loos (12.700) and Phillips (12.900) contributed a combined 25.600 on horizontal bar in Rotation 3 with Jong (11.700) and Jung-Ruivivar (12.750) adding 24.450 on balance beam.

Canada’s Sydney Turner notched the day’s high score on beam with a 13.600, while her countryman Felix Dolci led the way on horizontal bar with a 13.800. Italy’s Elisa Iorio topped the field on uneven bars with a 13.950.