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Takeru Kitazono (北園 丈琉, Kitazono Takeru, born 21 October 2002) is a Japanese male artistic gymnast.[1] At the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he won five gold medals in the all-around, floor, rings, parallel bars, and horizontal bar competitions.[2] He was the first artistic gymnast ever to achieve such a feat in a single Youth Olympic Games.[3]

Takeru Kitazono
Kitazono at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics
Personal information
Full name	Takeru Kitazono
Country represented	Japan
Born	(2002-10-21) October 21, 2002 (age 19) Osaka, Japan
Residence	Osaka, Japan
Height	1.54 m (5 ft 1 in)
Discipline	Men's artistic gymnastics
Level	Elite
Years on national team	Japan
Club	Seifu High School
Gym	Tokushukai
Head coach(es)	Isao Yoneda Hisashi Mizutori
Former coach(es)	Hideki Umemoto
Medal record Men's artistic gymnastics Representing  Japan Olympic Games 2020 Tokyo Team Junior World Championships 2019 Győr Team 2019 Győr Pommel Horse 2019 Győr Parallel Bars Youth Olympic Games 2018 Buenos Aires All-Around 2018 Buenos Aires Floor Exercise 2018 Buenos Aires Rings 2018 Buenos Aires Parallel Bars 2018 Buenos Aires Horizontal Bar Representing Mixed-NOCs Youth Olympic Games 2018 Buenos Aires Mixed team

Personal life

Kitazono was born on 21 October 2002 in Osaka, Japan.[4] He started gymnastics when he was three years old after his mother enrolled him in a nearby gym[5] because he was fascinated with a Japanese superhero television series Kamen Rider Hibiki.[6]

Kitazono has received two awards. At the 2018 Japanese Olympic Committee Sports Awards, he received a Rookie Award.[6] In 2019, he received Big Sports Rookie Award at the 53rd TV Asahi Big Sports Awards.[6]

Gymnastics career

2017

In 2017, Kitazono fractured his left ankle during training. The injury was still troubling him at the national trials for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.[6]

2018

Kitazono was selected to represent Japan at the third Youth Olympics Games. While there he won an unprecedented five gold medals – in the all-around, floor exercise, rings, parallel bars, and horizontal bar – beating the previous record of three gold medals won by Nikita Nagornyy and Giarnni Regini-Moran at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games. He finished sixth on pommel horse.[3] In addition to his five gold medals, Kitazono also received a silver medal in the mixed multi-discipline team (teams were randomly composed of gymnasts from various countries and various disciplines). Kitazono was assigned to the team named after British gymnast Max Whitlock.

Kitazono later competed at the All-Japan Team Championships where he helped his club finish seventh.[7]

2019

In January, Kitazono competed at the RD761 Junior International Cup where he helped Japan win gold, and individually, he placed first on the all-around, pommel horse, rings and parallel bars, and he placed seventh on the horizontal bar as well as sixth on floor exercise.[8]

Kitazono was selected to represent Japan at the inaugural Junior World Championships alongside Ryosuke Doi and Shinnosuke Oka. While there the team won gold in the team final finishing nearly 3 points ahead of second place Ukraine. Although Kitazono recorded the third-highest all-around score of the day, he was left off the podium due to both teammates scoring higher and the two-per-country rule taking place.[9] During event finals he won gold on pommel horse and parallel bars and placed seventh on floor exercise.[10]

2021

In April, Kitazono damaged ligaments in both elbows while competing on the horizontal bar at the All-Japan Championships, the national selection trials for the 2020 Olympic Games at home in Tokyo.[6]

At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, Kitazono, 18, was competing with a relatively young Japanese squad, which also included Daiki Hashimoto, 19, Kazuma Kaya, 24, and Kakeru Tanigawa, 22.[11] With a completely new roster for the team event, none of Japan's past gymnasts with Olympic experience returned to be part of the team. Kitazono later won the Olympic team silver in the men's team all-around competition. The team posted a combined score of 262.397, which was only 0.103 points behind the winning Russian Olympic Committee team.[12] If Japan had managed to pull off capturing team gold at these Games, Kitazono would have broken the record and become Japan's youngest male gymnast in history to win Olympic gold. He would have been 18 years, 9 months and 5 days old. Record is currently being held by Kenzō Shirai at 19 years, 11 months and 15 days old, who also became the first/only Japanese male teenage gymnast then to win Olympic gold at the 2016 Summer Games after Japan took the team title. Hashimoto joined Shirai as Japan's second (youngest) male teenage gymnast, who was only 6 days older when he took his first Olympic gold in 2021 after winning the individual all-around. Shirai broke long-held record of Eizo Kenmotsu, who took team title nearly 48 years ago at the 1968 Games as a 20-year-8-month-and-11-day-old.

References

На других языках

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- [en] Takeru Kitazono

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[fr] Takeru Kitazono

Takeru Kitazono (né le 21 octobre 2002 à Osaka) est un gymnaste artistique japonais.

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