TOKYO
\nThe Japanese men\u2019s gymnastics team have won either gold or silver at every Olympics since Athens in 2004 and while the current squad lack the experience of their predecessors there is no shortage of talent among this band of novices.
\nThree-time Olympic gold medallist Kohei Uchimura will only be taking part in the individual horizontal bar event in Tokyo but the team will still be able to draw on the 32-year-old\u2019s experience, even if they are still adapting to his absence.
\nHirotaka Matsuoka, a sports marketing professor at Tokyo\u2019s Waseda University, said the team were stronger than its untried Olympic status might suggest.
\n\u201cThey may not have as much Olympics experience, but the level at the Japanese trials earlier this year was very high so there\u2019s a lot of good people on board,\u201d said Matsuoka.
\n\u201cJust making it onto the Olympics team may actually have been quite a lot harder.\u201d
\nMatsuoka said Uchimura would help the team through this transition year. \u201cHaving somebody like that with them is going to be a huge support, it doesn\u2019t matter what apparatus they\u2019re doing,\u201d he added.
\nAmong those expected to impress is Kazuma Kaya, who was passed over for the 2016 Rio team and has been driven by that setback ever since.
\nThe soft-spoken 24-year-old, dubbed \u201cthe man who doesn\u2019t fail\u201d by his team mates, was a member of the team that took gold at the 2015 world championships and bronze four years later.
\nHe topped the podium at the Japan nationals last year and finished third in 2021.
\nDaiki Hashimoto, 19, is also seen as a rising star after winning the 2021 Japan nationals and NHK Trophy while the most senior on the team is Wataru Tanigawa at 25.
\nTanigawa was part of the teams that won bronze medals in the 2018 and 2019 world championships.
\nTakeru Kitazono, 18, has been nicknamed \u201cKohei No. 2\u201d for winning five golds at the 2018 Youth Games in Buenos Aires, though Uchimura himself is not so keen on the moniker.
\n\u201cI think Takeru Kitazono is Takeru Kitazono, let\u2019s not put too much pressure on him,\u201d Uchimura told a news conference earlier this year.
\nThe men\u2019s gymnastics competition kicks off on Saturday with a day of qualifying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TOKYO The Japanese men\u2019s gymnastics team have won either gold or silver at every Olympics since Athens in 2004 and while the current squad lack the experience of their predecessors there is no shortage of talent among this band of novices. Three-time Olympic gold medallist Kohei Uchimura will only be taking part in the individual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205582,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n