[Sports Road News]Two-time Olympic gymnastics men’s all-around gold medalist, Japanese star Uchimura Hanghei officially announced his retirement through the manager’s company on Tuesday (11th). The 33-year-old Dongying gymnastics “first brother” has been plagued by shoulder injuries in recent years. Last year, he gave up his all-around 3 consecutive championships at the Tokyo Olympics and only played in the horizontal bar. Unfortunately, he missed the preliminaries and missed the medal.
Uchimura Kopei, born in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, is the most successful athlete in the history of Japanese gymnastics. He has competed in four consecutive Olympic Games since the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and won the men’s all-around gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics and the 2016 Rio Olympics. At that time, it set a record of defending the title of a male player in the all-around event once more in 44 years. Including the team competition, Uchimura won a total of 3 golds, 4 silvers and a total of 7 medals in 4 Olympic trips, and in the world championships from 2009 to 2015, he won the individual all-around champion 6 times, a record that no one has ever broken. .
However, no matter how great an athlete is, he is no match for injuries. After winning the championship in the Rio Olympics, Uchimura has been struggling with shoulder injuries for the past five years. In order to play at the East Olympics at home, he insisted on training and received more than 100 injections for treatment. He had to rely on injections almost every week to stop his injuries. However, he still returned from the Tokyo Olympics, leaving the biggest regret of his career. Uchimura participated in the last World Championships in his hometown of Kitakyushu at the end of last year, and won the sixth place in the horizontal bar. After the competition, he said, “First of all, I have to rest, and then I will think regarding the future.” Until January 3 this year, he turned 33 years old. Uchimura Hanghei finally made the decision to retire and officially announced the world today.
This article is by “Sportsroad“Originally published in “[Gymnastics]Japan’s all-around king Uchimura Kohei announces his retirement from the Tokyo Olympics」
