Top Athletes: The Best Artistic Gymnast In The World, Kohei Uchimura

We present to you the best artistic gymnast in the world, Kohei Uchimura, the living young legend from far most east of the world, where the sun shines first is by far the best one in the sport. Just to remind you this is a follow up from my previous blog entry about the top athletes around us, Donald Bratman the greatest batsman in the world, while sir Bratman could achieve the best test batting average of 99.94 that has been claimed to be statistically the greatest achievement in any major sport, the other batsman could only score 60.97. Kohei Uchimura is not only the first male gymnast to win 3 all-around titles, but he is also the first gymnast to win 3 consecutive all-around titles.

Kohei Uchimura

Kōhei Uchimura (January 3, 1989) is a Japanese artistic gymnast. He is a two-time Olympic silver medalist (all around and team) and a nine-time World medalist (all around, team, floor, high bar, and parallel bars). He is famous for winning three consecutive world all around titles (2009, 2010 and 2011) and for delivering difficult and accurately executed routines. His gymnastics skills were praised by the International Gymnast Magazine as a "combination of tremendous difficulty, supreme consistency and extraordinary elegance of performance".

Kohei Uchimura The Best Artistic Gymnast In The World

Kohei Uchimura's Year in Review:

Kohei Uchimura The Best Artistic Gymnast In The World

2009

Kohei Uchimura 

In October 2009 Uchimura competed at the 2009 World Championships. Here, he dominated both the qualifications and the all around final. He won the all around title by a margin of 2.575 points ahead of Daniel Keatings, marking top scores for floor, rings, vault, and horizontal bar. Uchimura also placed fourth on floor and sixth on high bar. He appeared on the cover of the December 2009 number of the International Gymnastics Magazine which was entitled "Uchimura rules".

2010

On October 2010 Uchimura was a member of the Japanese team at the 2010 World Championships. As in the previous year he dominated the qualifications and the all around final, winning his second consecutive all around title by a margin of 2.251 points ahead of Philipp Boy. During the all around final he had the highest score of the day on floor and the highest execution mark (9.666) for a Yurchenko 21⁄2 twists on vault. He also contributed to Japan's team silver medal by competing the team final on all events except still rings. He qualified for two event finals, winning silver on floor and bronze on parallel bars.

2011

Kohei Uchimura The Best Artistic Gymnast In The World

Kohei Uchimura

On October 14, 2011, Uchimura won the all-around final for the 3rd time at the 2011 World Championships in Tokyo, Japan. Uchimura won by a margin of 3.101 points, roughly the same margin that separated 2nd and 14th place. Not only is he the first male gymnast to win 3 all-around titles, but he is also the first gymnast to win 3 consecutive all-around titles. Uchimura qualified for 5 of the 6 apparatus finals (all except vault). 

Kohei Uchimura The Best Artistic Gymnast In The World

He won his first world event gold medal on floor exercise as well as a bronze medal on high bar and the silver medal with the Japanese team. At these Worlds, Uchimura also won the Longines Prize for Elegance along with Romania's Ana Porgras. The prize is given to the male and female gymnasts who demonstrate "the most remarkable elegance". Unanimously declared the winners by a panel of judges, Uchimura and Porgras were each awarded a trophy, Longines watch, and $5000USD. Uchimura was especially pleased to win this award, since he collects watches.

In November 2011, Uchimura won 4 gold medals at the 65th Japanese Championships. Besides the all-around title, he also picked up titles on half of the apparatuses: floor exercise, pommel horse, and high bar.

Kohei Uchimura The Best Artistic Gymnast In The World

He's not only too talented, but he's also very young, and already a legend, it's obvious that there's a lot more world records to be broken by the current best artistic gymnast in the world, Kohei Uchimura ^_^