Rio 2016 Olympic Calympian: Ryan Patterson, Men's gymnastics, South Africa

Ryan Patterson

Sport: Men's Gymnastics (all-around)

Country: South Africa

Twitter: N/A ; Facebook

Birthday: January 10th, 1994 (age 22)

Hometown: Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Ryan Patterson grew up in Pacifica, CA

Cal affiliation: California Golden Bears alum (Haas School of Business, B.B.A. '16)

Years at Cal: 2012-16

Olympic appearances: 2016 is Ryan Patterson's first trip to the Olympic games

Ryan Patterson has officially qualified for the #2016Olympics in Rio to represent South Africa! #RoadToRio #GoBears pic.twitter.com/Nqtcpdb9i0

— Cal Men's Gymnastics (@CalMensGym) April 17, 2016

Cal Achievements:

Ryan Patterson competed for the Cal Men's Gymnastics team for three seasons before taking senior year (this past season) off to focus on making it to the Olympics.

From his CalBears.com bio:

2015: All-American on vault (finished sixth) ... Qualified for the Rio Test Event in 2016 ahead of the Olympics after his performance for South Africa at the World Championships in the fall in Glasgow ... Made his season-debut on 1/17 @ Stanford with a 13.350 on pommel horse ... Posted a 12.500 on pommel horse on 1/24 @ Stanford ... Scored a 13.850 on pommel @ Arizona State on 1/30 ... Posted a 12.500 on pommel horse, a 13.850 on rings, a 14.850 on vault and a 13.600 on high bar @ Washington against the Huskies and Arizona State on 2/7 ... Scored a 14.950 on floor, a 13.450 on pommel horse, a 14.600 on rings, a 14.750 on vault, a 14.600 on p-bars and a 14.750 on high bar to total an all-around score of 87.100 on 2/28 @ Stanford ... At the time, set a new career-best with a score of 15.300 on floor, tallied a 14.000 on rings and a 14.700 on vault, p-bars and high bar on 3/8 vs. Oklahoma ... Scored an all-around 86.000 in the final home meet of the season on 3/13 vs. Washington; scoring a 15.250 on floor, a 12.300 on pommel, a 14.150 on rings, a 14.900 on vault, a 14.250 on p-bars and a career-best 15.150 on high bar ... Totaled an 86.900, which ranked fourth at the MPSF Championships on 3/28 in Colorado Springs, scoring a career-best 15.450 on floor, a 12.950 on pommel, a 14.500 on rings, a 14.700 on vault, a 14.400 on p-bars and a 14.900 on high bar ... Set a new career-best in the all-around competition on day one of the NCAA Championships on 4/9 in Ann Arbor, Mich., scoring an 87.300; posting scores of 15.300 on floor, 13.550 on pommel horse, 14.050 on rings, 14.700 on vault, 14.550 on p-bars and a career-best equaling 15.150 on high bar ... Totaled an all-around score of 86.600, which placed 10th nationally at the team finals on 4/10 by posting a 15.350 on floor, 13.350 on pommel, 14.200 on rings, 15.000 on vault, 14.200 on p-bars and 14.500 on high bar ... Finished sixth overall on vault with a score of 14.850 to earn All-American status at the individual national championships on 4/11 to conclude his season.

2014: Made his season debut at the Big Meet on 1/11 vs. Stanford and posted a 14.700 on floor exercise, 13.700 on still rings, 14.050 on vault, 12.650 on parallel bars and 13.450 on high bar ... Set new career-bests on floor exercise (15.250) and vault (14.850) on 1/18 @ Stanford ... Finished with a team-high 15.200 on floor exercise, a career-best 13.950 on still rings, a 14.250 on vault, a career-best 14.450 on parallel bars and a 12.400 on horizontal bar at the Stanford Open on 1/25 ... Scored a 13.450 on floor exercise, 13.250 on still rings, a team-high 14.750 on vault, a 13.300 on parallel bars and a 14.250 on high bar on 2/8 vs. Arizona State ... Posted an 11.450 on pommel horse, a career-high 14.250 on still rings, new career-best on vault with a 15.100, 13.450 on parallel bars and a career-high 14.500 on high bar @ Ohio State on 2/14 ... Scored an 81.650 in all-around competition at the Collegiate Cup on 3/1, highlighted by his career-high 14.850 on high bar ... Scored a 14.550 on floor exercise, 14.750 on vault, a career-best 14.500 on parallel bars and a 14.000 on 3/8 vs. Stanford and Ohio State ... Posted a 14.800 on floor, 13.800 on rings, matched his career-best of 15.100 on vault, 13.850 on parallel bars and 13.900 on high bar vs. Washington on 3/15.

2013: Competed on floor exercise, rings, vault, parallel bars and high bar as a true freshman ... Made his season debut on 1/13 at the Big Meet vs. Stanford by posting a 13.200 on rings, a 12.950 on vault, a 12.650 on parallel bars and a 13.100 on high bar ... Finished with a 15.050 on floor exercise, a 12.600 on parallel bars and a 14.450 on high bar at the Stanford Open vs. Stanford, Oklahoma and Nebraska ... Posted a 13.900 on floor exercise, an 11.050 on rings, a 14.400 on parallel bars and a 14.000 on high bar @ Michigan on 2/2 ... Put up a 14.650 on floor exercise, a 13.900 on rings, a 14.650 on vault, an 14.350 on parallel bars and a 12.050 on high bar @ Stanford on 2/23 ... Finished with a 14.800 on floor exercise, a 14.550 on vault, a 14.300 on parallel bars and a 13.250 on high bar at the Collegiate Challenge on 3/2 in Palo Alto vs. Stanford, Arizona State, Washington and the Japanese Collegiate All-Star team ... Finished with a 14.950 on floor exercise, a 13.450 on parallel bars and a 13.150 on high bar vs. Temple on 3/10 ... Posted a 15.000 on floor exercise, a 14.350 on parallel bars and a 13.750 on high bar on 3/16 vs. Illinois ... Finished with a 14.100 on floor exercise, a 14.400 on vault, a 12.700 on parallel bars and a 14.400 on high bar at the MPSF Championships in Colorado Springs, Colo. ... Posted a 14.550 on floor, a 14.700 on vault, a 14.250 on parallel bars and a 13.500 on high bar at the NCAA Qualifier on 4/6 in State College, Pa.

#Cal's Ryan Patterson spends some time with #NBCBayArea to discuss his qualification for the #Olympics #RoadToRio pic.twitter.com/57o1hWZYvi

— Cal Men's Gymnastics (@CalMensGym) April 27, 2016

While the video is embedded above, you can also check out the transcript of Ryan Patterson's interview with NBC Bay Area here.

International Achievements:

Ryan Patterson first represented South Africa in the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics in Singapore. He also finished 72nd at the 2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

The road to Rio started in the fall of 2015 when Ryan Patterson represented South Africa in the World Championships in Glasgow. Patterson performed well enough to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Test Event, which took place in Rio back in April.

Patterson scored an all-around total of 82.932, which was his best-ever international showing. His 44th place overall finish was good enough to qualify him for the Rio games. Check out how Ryan fared in all 6 events from this Olympic test event below:

Vault (41st overall):

Horizontal Bar (Ryan's favorite event):

Floor (25th overall):

Rings:

Pommel Horse:

Parallel Bars:

More on Ryan and his Rio outlook:

Ryan Patterson started doing gymnastics when he was 3. While born in South Africa, Patterson grew up in the Bay Area in Pacifica. He is the first South African gymnast to make the Olympic in 50 years and will be an one man team. His Cal assistant coach J.T. Okada will join him in Rio as the head coach of the South African men's gymnastics team (of one, Ryan Patterson).

Congratulations to Ryan Patterson for achieving his dream of becoming an Olympian. Unfortunately, the odds of him medalling is really low. Nevertheless, he should have a great experience there.

From his LinkedIn profile, the recent Haas graduate wants to pursue a future in Finance. The 2013 Collegiate Academic All-American appears to have some good experiences in that field already. Best of luck to him outside the gym as well.

Good luck to Ryan in Rio and GO BEARS!