Gymnastics · 2016 · Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
King Kohei's Back-to-Back Crown
A Japanese gymnast nicknamed 'King Kohei' defends his Olympic all-around title in Rio, the first man to win consecutive Games in the event in 44 years.
2 (2012, 2016)
Olympic all-around golds
44 years (Sawao Kato)
Gap since last repeat champion
6 (consecutive, 2 streaks)
World all-around titles
Kohei Uchimura won his first Olympic all-around gold at the 2012 London Games, part of a run of dominance that also included six World Championship all-around titles across two separate three-year streaks, 2009 to 2011 and 2013 to 2015, a period in which he was effectively unbeaten in all-around competition for the better part of a decade.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics he defended that Olympic title, scoring 92.365 to hold off Ukraine's Oleg Verniaiev and Great Britain's Max Whitlock. In doing so he became the first man since the Soviet Union's Sawao Kato, who won in 1968 and 1972, to win back-to-back Olympic all-around titles, and only the second man ever to medal in the event at three separate Olympics, adding a 2008 Beijing silver to his two golds.
Uchimura's Rio win closed out one of the most complete individual eras men's gymnastics has produced: a gymnast who combined virtually flawless execution with enough difficulty to win at the highest level for the better part of ten years, across two Olympic cycles and multiple generations of rivals.
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