Rio 2016: Japan’s Uchimura set to extend grip on gymnastics

"I was exhausted," said Kohei Uchimura within an hour of leading Japan's surge to supremacy over China in the Olympic gymnastic's arena on Monday evening.

Artistic gymnastics is that rare sport in which the male field is overshadowed by the women's events, but Uchimura is to Japanese sport what Haruki Murakami is to its book shelves: a superstar who transcends his environment.

Tonight (8pm), he will be favourite to extend his grip on the world of individual gymnastics, but his mission in Rio is to raise the profile of his sport over all.

“My feeling is that gymnastics in Japan is not known that well. I am hoping that not just my name and Kenzo Shirai’s name will be known across the country,” he said on Monday evening. “This team gold allows the names of the team members to be known.”

After finishing silver at the last two Games, Monday’s final was one of the most sought after tickets of the day as the Japanese sought to end China’s supremacy in the team event.

If the end was perfect, Japan’s opening chapters were chaotic, particularly by Uchimura’s immaculate standards.

The sight of him losing his grip and tumbling from the horizontal bars during the heats was shocking for aficionados. But it might have been put down to a moment of distraction: like the rest of the world he was worrying about paying the bills.

The first thing Uchimura did to generate attention in Rio was to rack up a phone bill amounting to $5,000 within days of arriving. It wasn’t from phoning home either: he was busy playing Pokemon Go with his roaming still on.

Phone provider

Uchimura is one of the most adored athletes in Japan, and has the endorsements to prove it, but he still blanched at the bill. Happily – and wisely from a PR perspective – his phone provider arranged for him to pay a flat rate for the remainder of his Rio adventure, allowing him to chase Pokemon all over the City of God.

Now that he has safely led his team to gold, attention will turn to today’s individual final.

There are loudening murmurs that if Uchimura goes on to win gold in this evening’s individual final he can rightly lay claim to being the best male artistic gymnast the sport has seen.

While Rio has revolved around the anticipated performances of American Simone Biles, the sport’s insiders are just as fascinated with the Japanese star

The expectation in Japan is that Uchimura will emulate Sawao Kato’s 1972 Olympic feat by winning successive gold medals in the all-round individual event. He has already won five Olympic medals: silver in the team and individual event in Beijing, gold in the individual and silver in the team all-round in London and silver in the bars four years ago. He has also been world champions in the all-round individual event for the past six years.

He has been the most vital figure in the revitalisation of Japan’s gymnastic tradition which began in earnest in the post-war years and culminating in Sawoa’s period of supreme domination in winning 12 gold medals between 1968 and 1976.

Folk hero

With

Tokyo

already in full 2020 Olympic preparation mode, the rise of Uchimura as a folk hero has come at the perfect time. British pommel horse specialist Louis Smith has described Uchimura as “the perfect gymnast”, while Biles has waved away comparisons as previous at best.

“Gosh, no I haven’t accomplished as much as he has,” she said after her team heats.

“He’s a legend, and it’s awesome to see him around the village because he’s so chill. Literally everyone knows who he is. We all look up to him. But he’s a normal human being, just like the rest of us.”

Except, of course, when Uchimura appears to defy gravity and the limits of physiological endurance: then he looks like something else entirely.

A failure to win gold by Uchimura would represent the first major shock of these games as it would require a major mistake in one of the events.

As long as he has suspended Pokemon-hunting, he should be fine.