Gymnastics can seem like a sport dominated by women to the uninitiated, but the best male gymnasts in the sport are now making a major splash. The women’s gymnastic competitions, even when they are weathered by horrific scandals usually draw lots of crowds, but not so the men. In this review, we look at the reason behind this and also go a step further to analyze the best male gymnasts of the 21st century.
Now, although both the men and the women gymnastics usually include floor exercise events during the Olympic Games, most viewers tend to favor the women more than the men, as they have noticed some differences in the two of them; first of all, the women usually dance and groove to the music as they flip and leap in their performances, while the men are usually silent. The reason behind this goes way back to the history of this sport.
It is even more shocking to note that the men’s gymnastics first appeared in 1896, while the women gymnastics came into the picture 32 years later. The men focused on strength while the women were supposed to be more graceful. That said, here are some of the best male gymnasts of the 21st century.
Kōhei Uchimura
He is a Japanese gymnast and a seven-time Olympic Medalist. He has so far won three gold medals and four silver medals. He is also a twenty-one-time world medalist, which includes all-around competitions, floor, team, parallel and bar competitions. He is considered by many as the greatest gymnast of all time after his great success during the 2012 Summer Olympics that were held in London.
He followed up his London success by additionally winning at every major competition during the next Olympic cycle that led up to his individual all-around gold-medal victory in the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Summer Olympics. He is also known as the first-ever male Olympic Gymnast to win in every major all-around title for the entire Olympic cycle, which is a feat that was accomplished twice when he won six times from 2009-2015.
He is also the individual all-around silver medalist of the 2008 summer Olympics that were held in Beijing. He is well-known for delivering the most difficult and accurately executed routines. The international gymnast magazine also praised his skills and said they are a combination of tremendously difficult, consistent and extraordinary elegance performances.
Ryōhei Katō
He is another Japanese gymnast who was born in 1993. He won two Silver Olympic medals during the men’s artistic all-around team in 2012, and a gold medal in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro competition. Together with his other Japanese Teammates, they competed in the 2013 Summer Universiade that was held in Kazan, where team Japan won the bronze medal.
He also won gold in the floor competitions and a bronze in the horizontal bar finals. Kato competed at the 2013 world championships with Kōhei Uchimura, Kenzo Shirai, Koji Yamamuro, Kohei Kameyama, and Kazuhito Tanaka. He competed individually in the all-around finals and was placed second which was just two points behind the world champion Uchimura.
Yūsuke Tanaka
He is a Japanese gymnast who won two Olympic medals in the men’s artistic team all-around, this was a silver medal in the 2012 London Olympic Games and a gold in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro competitions. During the 2012 Olympic Games, he won a silver medal in the Men’s artistic all-around team and in 2013, during the Summer Universiade in Kazan, he won a silver on the horizontal bars and a team bronze medal with his team.
Hiroyuki Tomita
He is a Japanese gymnast who won three Olympic Medals at the 2004 and the 2008 Olympic Games. He began gymnastics at the age of eight when his mother got him started in the sport. In high school, he also competed in the all-Japan high school games that were held in 1996. This first competition ranked him at number 10 overall. The following year, saw him rise in the competitions and was ranked 9th overall. He continued to dominate the all-Japan High school games and won 1st place in the all-around games held in 1998.
He was placed first in the events such as high bar, which later became his signature event and the parallel bars as well. In the parallel bars, he won the Olympic Medal. After graduating from high school, he attended the Juntendo University and his hobbies included watching football and baseball. According to a test conducted in 2006, it was found out that Tomita had less than 2% body fat, and he does drills and exercises without any weight training.
The Best Male Gymnasts Of The 21st Century Conclusion
Fantastic male gymnasts are on the rise, and there are many more that could be on the list. We’ve broken down a list of the best male gymnasts of the 21st century so far so you can also appreciate their prowess. Although our list is dominated by Japan, there are many others from different countries, but Japanese male gymnasts have really pushed to themselves to the top. As male gymnastics grows, we’re sure to see some great acrobatics from more regions of the world.
