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There was already a sense that Ward might struggle here. A bronze perhaps. Maybe even a buck depending on how things go.
His teammates shouted privately that if everything fell in his favor, gold was within reach. They had seen him at practice, and they performed together at a team event on Friday. Scotland finished fourth.
They knew he was in a good place.
Ward was in seventh place after the floor exercise, but moved into the lead after an impressive performance on the pommel – normally his strongest event.
He maintained that advantage after the rings – at which point various Team Scotland officials and members of the Scottish media could smell gold in the air.
Ward’s vault was marred by a small issue in the team’s preparation – he had to adapt on the fly and could only perform two turns – but this time he nailed it and performed three in the final two turns to get to the top of the standings.
A strong performance in the parallel bars – and an appeal by Team Scotland to add an extra 0.100 – kept him leading at 0.550, meaning he needed to maintain his form on the horizontal bars to take gold.
Ward did that and more.
As he touched down, coach Jake Seager dropped to his knees in celebration before the two embraced. It wasn’t official yet, but they knew.
“I like to imagine the best possible scenario and that was a winner,” Ward added when asked what he was thinking when his head hit the pillow on Saturday night.
“It made me wake up a little bit because I’m portraying it and feeling it. But this beat expectations by a mile.”
“Falling short on Friday was heartbreaking and I’m so worried, man, I can’t put words together.”
More could be better. He goes in the floor, ring and pommel on Monday, and later is a real medal contender.
His celebrations will have to wait for now, but on Tuesday, Ward will be able to meet all the captains in Glasgow with his Scotland team-mates.
“Looks like he ate a hotel meal tonight and probably slept very badly,” he said. “Then I go in tomorrow, and try to relax and hit my routine.
“Tuesday, after the race, I will celebrate a big moment with the team, with my children. I love them very much and it was special for them to come to see me at the end when I turned to the stage.
“I hope we get a little taste of Glasgow..”
