Kōhei Uchimura

Kōhei Uchimura (born January 3, 1989, Kitakyūshū, Fukuoka, Japan) is a former Japanese gymnast who is considered one of the greatest male gymnasts of all time, renowned for his near-perfect execution of highly difficult routines. During an incredible run of success he won an unprecedented six consecutive all-around golds at the world championships (2009–15) and was the first male gymnast in 44 years to earn back-to-back individual all-around gold medals at the Olympic Games (2012 and 2016).

Early life and career

Uchimura’s parents, Kazuhisa and Shuko Uchimura, were both former gymnasts, and they opened a sports club in Nagasaki, where he began gymnastics training at the age of three. When he was 15 years old, Uchimura moved to Tokyo to train with Naoya Tsukahara, who had been a member of Japan’s gold-medal-winning all-around team at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Three years later Uchimura joined Japan’s national team. He won a bronze medal in the vault in his senior debut at the 2007 World Cup in Paris. He made his Olympic debut at the 2008 Games in Beijing, where he took home the silver medal in the individual all-around, helped Japan win silver in the team all-around, and placed fifth in the floor exercise.

Unparalleled success

Uchimura carried that momentum to the 2009 artistic gymnastics world championships in London and came away with the gold medal in the individual all-around. He defended that title in 2010 at the worlds in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and in 2011 at the competition in Tokyo, becoming the first male gymnast to win three all-around titles at the worlds and the first gymnast of either sex to win three in a row. Uchimura won a total of four medals at the 2010 worlds, including silver in the floor exercise and the team all-around and bronze in the parallel bars. At the 2011 worlds Uchimura captured the gold medal in the floor exercise, led Japan to the silver in the team all-around, and took home the bronze in the horizontal bar.

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Heading into the 2012 London Olympics, Uchimura said that his goal was to lead Japan to the team all-around gold over rival China, the gold medalist in 2008 in Beijing. In London, however, the Chinese squad again defeated the Japanese. During the team competition, Uchimura fell from the pommel horse while dismounting, but after his coaches appealed the scoring, the judges ruled that he should get credit for the dismount and bumped his score up 0.7 point to push Japan onto the podium for the silver medal, ahead of the United Kingdom. He had greater success in individual competition, where he again won the all-around gold medal, becoming the fourth male gymnast from Japan to grab the individual all-around gold and the first since Koji Gushiken accomplished the feat at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. Uchimura added a silver medal in London in the floor exercise, bringing his career Olympic medal total to five.

Meanwhile, Uchimura continued his reign atop the world championships. He captured the all-around gold at Antwerp in 2013, at Nanning, China, in 2014, and at Glasgow, Scotland, in 2015, each time winning by huge point margins over his next closest rival. At the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games Uchimura defended his individual all-around gold medal, matching a feat last accomplished in 1976, by his countryman Katō Sawao. The Japanese team also finally finished atop the podium in the all-around competition after being the runner-up in the two previous Games.

Injuries and retirement

The normally indomitable Uchimura began to be weakened by injuries starting in 2017. That year he withdrew from the world championships in Montreal after injuring his left ankle, and he was limited by a right ankle injury in the next year’s worlds in Doha, Qatar. In 2019 nagging shoulder injuries prevented him from even qualifying for the world championships. Thereafter, he decided to narrow his focus to the horizontal bar event for the rest of his career. This strategy bore fruit, as Uchimura qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (delayed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic) on the apparatus. However, his attempt to cap his Olympic career with a strong showing in his home country was cut short when he fell from the bar during the qualifying round, and he was eliminated from competition. Several months after finishing in sixth place in horizontal bar at the world championships in his hometown of Kitakyūshū in October 2021, Uchimura announced his retirement.

Personal life and other activities

Uchimura is a beloved figure in Japan. He has gained a devoted following by extolling his love for manga comic books and chocolate cookies and by showing his single-minded dedication to his craft. In a 2015 interview with CNN, he said, “I cannot live a day without practicing. I feel uncomfortable if I don’t practice. I want everyone to know that practice never betrays you, and there is no such thing as a meaningless effort.” He and his wife, Chiho Uchimura, married in 2012 and have two daughters, born in 2013 and 2015.

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