フランス パリ五輪 2024
How Japan's gymnasts picked each other up and toppled China
2024/07/31 The Japantimes
How Japan's gymnasts picked each other up and toppled China
2024/07/31 The Japantimes
PARIS – Daiki Hashimoto was the one on the horizontal bar. He was the person spinning around and around performing intricate movements and twisting through the air when he let go of the bar before catching it again to resume his routine. He was one of the only athletes on the floor at the time, so the rapt attention of Bercy Arena was trained on the 22-year-old. When he performed his dismount, the crowd cheered.
The score sheet will forever show that Hashimoto was alone on that bar, a lonely figure tasked with balancing the hopes of his nation on his muscular shoulders. It will only be his name beside the 14.566 score that ultimately propelled Japan past China and to the gold medal in the men’s gymnastics team competition at the Paris Olympics on Monday.
Hashimoto, though, might quibble with that fact. Because immediately after his last-gasp heroics, he was adamant that he was not alone.
“I brought everyone's passion together for my routine,” Hashimoto said later. “I remembered the passion of my coaches, and that made me very happy.
"I feel like I haven't contributed at all. It was thanks to my teammates.
"It's a very passionate and strong-willed team. The five of us, along with our coaches who stuck with us until the end, were a formidable unit. We were unified, and I believe we were an exceptional team because of our dedication and passion."
Japan narrowly defeated China 259.594 to 259.062 to claim the gold medal. The Chinese gymnasts led the competition for most of the night and had the gold almost around their necks until Su Weide slipped off the horizontal bar — not once, but twice — to open the door for Japan. China ultimately earned silver and the United States finished third with 257.793.
Japan won the event for the first time since the 2016 Olympics. The team had to settle for silver behind the Russian Olympic Committee on home soil at the Tokyo Games.
Three members from the squad that competed in Tokyo — Hashimoto, Kazuma Kaya and Wataru Tanigawa — returned for the Paris Games alongside newcomers Shinnosuke Oka and Takaaki Sugino.
The two things the Japanese team kept repeating after rallying to gold on Monday was the importance of teamwork and never giving up.
"We are a team and that gives you an adrenaline rush,” Sugino said. “Each member watched over the others at all times.
"We only got this gold medal because we worked together and no one gave up."
The Japanese did not give up after Hashimoto, their ace performer, fell on the pommel horse during the second rotation to put their chance at gold in jeopardy. As Hashimoto walked off the podium after his fall he pressed his palms together and slightly bowed his head as an apology.
“The moment I fell, I thought we might have missed out on gold again because of me,” Hashimoto said. “But when I came back, Kaya and Sugino told me not to give up and that we can still do it.”
When Japan slipped to fifth after the rings on the third rotation, the gymnasts resolved to fight until the end.
"I never felt like giving up,” Oka said. “Our team leader (Kaya) kept reminding us not to give up, and his words resonated with me.”
Japan and China were paired together during the final and went into the last apparatus, the horizontal bar, with the Chinese holding a commanding 3.267 lead over Japan, which was in second place.
Sugino got Japan off to a good start with a 14.566, while China’s Xiao Ruoteng scored 13.433. Oka received a 14.433 for his routine, and when Weide stumbled to an 11.6, the gold was in reach for Japan.
It was up to Hashimoto, who was uncharacteristically shaky in the preliminary round and had fallen earlier in the night.
"I had a lot of things on my mind, but when I got onto the podium, I just concentrated on my performance,” he said. "I felt the rest of the team was all behind me, they had my back. They pushed me onto the stage. I was almost crying before the performance."
Hashimoto had a clean performance on the bar with the gold medal on the line. He said he was not pleased with his dismount, but decided it was OK when he saw the crowd giving him a standing ovation.
The gold medal, he said later, was the product of teamwork and five gymnasts working as one.
"It’s very different from winning as an individual,” he said. “Seeing everyone smiling, hugging, and celebrating deepened our bond. It was a medal that drove us to new heights and brought out feelings I never felt."
