Japanese gymnast Kohei Uchimura, a three-time Olympic gold medalist, is headed for his fourth straight Olympic Games after clinching a spot on the nationwide workforce on Sunday with a tie-breaking level.
Uchimura, 32, lengthy so dominant within the sport he’s been referred to as “King Kohei,” has opted this time to only compete in the horizontal bar to give his battered body a break, meaning he will not be taking part in the all-around competitions he once ruled.
The holder of a total of seven Olympic medals, at the 2016 Rio Summer Games he became the first male gymnast in 44 years to win back-to-back Olympic all-around titles. He also led the Japanese team to gold.
But injuries caught up with him in recent years and he struggled to stay in shape. He eventually made the decision to concentrate on the horizontal bar alone in order to clinch an Olympic spot, although he confessed that the choice was hard and part of him still wanted to compete on other apparatus.
Squeaking through after being awarded a tiebreaking point, Uchimura said his feelings were complicated.
“My performance wasn’t really one I could accept, and when I finished I thought I wouldn’t be going to the Olympics. But when I was told I would, more than being happy I was thinking ‘is this really okay?'” he informed a post-match information convention.
“I don’t really feel that after as we speak’s efficiency, I actually deserve to be referred to as ‘King.’ I’ll actually need to follow earlier than the Olympics,” he added.
“It was really hard for me, as such an old man, to perform after the New Generation,” he mentioned, referring to fellow workforce mates roughly a decade his junior. “I will not be a part of the all-around workforce effort however there’s nonetheless issues I can contribute due to my expertise.”
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