The past three years in men’s gymnastics have been defined by two supreme athletes. In Tokyo, Japan’s Daiki Hashimoto took the baton from the retiring legend Kohei Uchimura, becoming the first teenager to win the men’s all‑around title. He was joined shortly after at the summit by Zhang Boheng of China, the 2021 world all‑around champion who is responsible for the highest scores of the quadrennial. As they pushed each other to their limits and improved, this Olympic cycle seemed to be building up to a dramatic finale between them in Paris.
Minutes into the marathon men’s all-around final, however, the predicted narrative had crumbled to dust. In just the second tumbling pass of his opening floor routine, Zhang shockingly crashed into the floor after he failed to rebound out of his three‑and‑a‑half twisting layout somersault, landing on his head. A few minutes later, in the second rotation, Hashimoto slipped off the pommel horse while attempting to move into a handstand. Suddenly there was an opportunity for somebody else.
At just 20, Shinnosuke Oka of Japan had never competed in a major global championship before this week. But amid the nerves, falls and missed opportunities of the men’s competition, Oka’s excellence has been one constant. His precision and composure already played a key role in Japan’s team final victory, and it marked the difference between him and the rest as he held his nerve to become the Olympic men’s all-around champion.
Oka finished his first major all‑around competition with a score of 86.832, holding off an admirable late comeback by Zhang, the silver medallist, to win by 0.233 points. In third place, a solid showing from Xiao Ruoteng of China was rewarded with a bronze medal. Team GB’s top gymnasts converted their strong qualifying performances into excellent showings, with Joe Fraser finishing in fifth place and Jake Jarman seventh. For Hashimoto, who finished sixth, this was a bitter reminder of how hard it is to remain on top.
Having started the men’s all-around final as the clear favourite, Zhang finished the first rotation ranked 20th of 24. He responded to disaster impressively, immediately beginning to work his way back with accomplished showings on the pommel horse and rings. With his massive potential across all six events, he still had a clear chance to win gold if he brought his very best.
Suddenly at the top of the leaderboard, Oka continued to move through each piece with focus and care but by the final two rotations the margins were miniscule. In the qualifying rounds, Zhang had outscored Oka by 0.633 in their final two events. The gap between Oka in joint third place and Zhang in sixth was 0.566.
Under immense pressure from Zhang, though, Oka stood up to the occasion. First they both worked through brilliant parallel bar routines, then Oka produced his best scoring horizontal bar routine of the competition. It all came down to Zhang on his signature apparatus, in the final routine of the night. His massive horizontal bar score of 15.133 in qualifying would have been enough for gold. Midway through the routine, though, Zhang had to fight hard not to swing down the wrong side of the bar. He saved his swing, continued the routine and stuck the landing, but when the margins are so minute, every tenth counts. His score of 14.633, his lowest of the competition, left him in second place behind Oka.
Across three days of competition, almost every piece of gymnastics Oka has put out has been executed at the highest level. He is a clean, light and precise gymnast and he worked through his skills with immense self-belief. Having scored 86.865 in qualifying, Oka’s consistency is reflected in the 0.033 points difference between his qualifying and finals performances. He may now own the ultimate prize in his sport, but Oka is still at the start of his journey with ample room to improve.
While Zhang showed his fighting spirit to come so close to gold despite his fall, after China’s collapse in the team final, this is plainly another heartbreak. The first two days of competition made it clear that Zhang is the strongest gymnast in the world, but when it truly mattered he faltered.
“I’m not sure what it means to me,” he said. “It’s the second place at the Olympics and I’m not really happy with the result, but there’s nothing I can do.”
