U.S. Men's Gymnastics Team Take Home Bronze, Their First Olympic Medal in 16 Years

Teammates Brody Malone, Fred Richard, Paul Juda, Asher Hong and Stephen Nedoroscik cheered and celebrated with an American flag after their third-place finish

For the first time in 16 years, the U.S. men’s gymnastics team is taking home an Olympic medal.

Team USA gymnasts Paul Juda, Fred Richard, Brody Malone, Asher Hong and Stephen Nedoroscik were strong and steady throughout the competition to earn bronze, behind gold medalists Japan and second-place China.

The U.S. finished with a total score of 257.793, just 1.801 points behind Japan.

The hardware marks the first medal in the team event since 2008 for the American men’s gymnastics team, who finished fifth in qualifying rounds on Saturday.

Going into Monday, they decided they "weren't going to watch other teams" and they "weren't going to worry about scores," Malone, 24, told reporters, including PEOPLE, after the medal ceremony. "All we were going to worry about were the controlables that we could control, and that's our gymnastics."

"And when you do that, it helps you stay in the moment and we stayed in the moment really well today," he continued.

Their podium finish has "been a long time coming," Team USA coach Jordan Gaarenstroom said. "We know what toll its taken on the program and that was just more fuel for the fire this year. And that's ultimately what pushed these guys above and to get on the podium."

Related: Team USA Gymnast Paul Juda Cries as He Praises Support of Gymnast Girlfriend and Family at Olympics: 'It's Pretty Sweet'

"There's still a lot of room to grow, we want to be much better than we are now," he continued.

Going into their final apparatus, the pommel horse, the U.S. sat in third behind China and Japan.

That's when Nedoroscik, a 25-year-old pommel horse specialist, put up a 14.866 to guarantee the U.S. a medal.

"Once we got to the pommel horse and we started started crunching the numbers, we we're like, stay on the horse and we can do this," Gaarenstroom said. "Not only did they stay on the horse, they crushed the horse."

The team was seen screaming and cheering on the arena floor with an American flag after the final scores went up.

"Were told all our lives, the American dream, you know, you have a dream and you give everything every day toward it and eventually it comes true," Richard, 20, said. "We all are always waiting to see if that's really true."

"But I'm standing here with a medal around my neck after going to the gym everyday for hours and hours and giving everything, and it's like the universe paid you back," he continued.

"I'm living the American dream."

After qualifiers on Saturday, Juda, 23, told reporters that the team was focused on the task ahead, and would pay no mind to numbers and statistics.

“We didn’t watch any scores. We’re not going to watch any scores for the next competition,” he said. “We’re just going to go and do our routines and lay the cards where they fall. I’ve always just tried to take any competition one event at a time, especially as I’ve gotten older. But then I just look in the crowd and I see all those people and I go, ‘Oh my god, it’s just gymnastics!’”

Related: Stars for Simone! See All the Celebrities in the Arena to Cheer on Team USA Gymnastics at the Paris Olympics

Richard previously told PEOPLE earlier this month that heading to his first Olympics is “really exciting,”

“My biggest goal is by the end of this Olympics, number one, I guess everybody starts to know who I am and realize, okay, this kid is the future of gymnastics and for the next coming Olympics he’s going to be something big,” he said. “It’s kind of like my, ‘Hello, world.’ I got that from Tiger Woods. It’s kind of just telling the world that you are going to be something special.”

Related: Why Team USA's Male Gymnasts Are Pretty Sure They're Going to Win Big, at Last, in Paris

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