Gymnast Shane Wiskus, with Olympic dream turned to ‘nightmare,’ steps away from the spotlight

It was “the perfect meet.” That’s what Shane Wiskus called it.

Competing at the United States Olympic trials for men’s gymnastics at Target Center, near his hometown of Spring Park and in front of many fellow Gophers, Wiskus finished third in the two-day competition. “The best two days of competition of my life,” he said Saturday night after it was over.

But when the five-man Olympic team was announced, Wiskus was named as an alternate. He will travel to Paris, but he will not compete at the Summer Games unless a teammate is injured. Now 25 and already an Olympian in Tokyo in 2021, Wiskus has said the trials were probably his last meet.

On Sunday night, when the men’s gymnastics Olympic team, including the other alternate, Khoi Young, danced through introductions ahead of the final day of the women’s competition, Wiskus was conspicuously absent.

The rest of the team was a very present feature of the in-arena entertainment throughout the night. They posed for the “Flex Cam,” showing off their muscles. They lifted up 20-year-old Asher Hong a la “The Lion King” during the “Simba Cam.” They slid through a pile of streamers strewn on the floor after the announcement of the women’s gymnastics Olympic team.

In a statement on Instagram on Monday thanking Minneapolis for its support, Wiskus said he was “too fragile” from an emotional night to participate in the team’s promotional activities.

It was another example from the Olympic trials of a gymnast talking openly about mental health.

The men’s selection committee used a strict mathematical formula to determine the highest-scoring roster for the team event at the Paris Olympics. In the team event, each country chooses three gymnasts to compete in each of the six apparatuses, and all three scores count in the standings.

Wiskus was very good at everything, but not as good at everything as Olympic trials winner Frederick Richard and national champion Brody Malone. And in order to challenge teams like China, Japan, Great Britain and Ukraine for a medal, the U.S. needed to add gymnasts who are great at a few things, particularly pommel horse.

The formula came about after athletes and coaches requested more consistent benchmarks for making the team, said men’s program director Brett McClure. Even Wiskus acknowledged Monday that after the competition, he “had an eerie feeling that it wouldn’t be enough.”

And that is where, he said, “the nightmare begins.”

The photo ops as part of the team as the traveling alternate — seeing “tears of the men whose dreams have just come true, all while fighting to hold back my own tears for very different reasons.”

The social media obligations and news conference, where he was asked repeatedly how he felt. (His disappointment was the subject not just of local reporters but of national columns in the Washington Post and USA Today. ) “Numb” was his answer Saturday night.

Then there were drug testing protocols and a celebration with families and the rest of the team.

Two hours later, he wrote, he returned to his hotel room, and the first wave of emotions was “so deep and so brutal.”

He spent time with his friends and family reminiscing about a special week. But the next morning, “after a sleepless night,” he said, he received a schedule of activities, including interviews, photo shoots and appearances at the women’s event.

“I was simply too fragile in the moment for any of it,” he wrote. “I knew that what I needed most was to be home and in my own bed, which many can relate to.”

He asked for permission and went home to Florida.

“I want to state that my frustration in not making the team has no bearing on the athletes who did,” said Wiskus, who trains with two of them, Malone and Stephen Nedoroscik. “I know for a fact that the team selected is the team with the greatest potential for success.”

Nedoroscik, a pommel horse specialist, commented on Wiskus’ post: “I think I speak for everyone when I say having you by our sides will make this team even stronger.”