Kenzo Shirai

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Kenzō Shirai
Shirai at the Japanese Prime Minister's Official Residence in 2016
Nickname(s)Mr Twister
Twist Prince (Japanese)
Born (1996-08-24) August 24, 1996
Yokohama, Kanagawa
Height162 cm (5 ft 4 in)[1]
Gymnastics career
DisciplineMen's artistic gymnastics
Country
represented
Japan Japan
(2013–2021)
College team
Nippon Sport Science University (Nittaidai)
ClubTsurumi Gymnastics Club
Head coach(es)
Yoshiaki Hatakeda (club)
Hisashi Mizutori (national)
Former coach(es)
Masaki Shirai (father)
Norimi Shirai (mother)
Eponymous skillsSee eponymous skills
RetiredJune 16, 2021[2]
Medal record
Representing  Japan
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place2016 Rio de JaneiroTeam
Bronze medal – third place2016 Rio de JaneiroVault
World Championships
Gold medal – first place2013 AntwerpFloor exercise
Gold medal – first place2015 GlasgowTeam
Gold medal – first place2015 GlasgowFloor exercise
Gold medal – first place2017 MontrealFloor exercise
Gold medal – first place2017 MontrealVault
Silver medal – second place2014 NanningTeam
Silver medal – second place2014 NanningFloor exercise
Silver medal – second place2018 DohaFloor exercise
Bronze medal – third place2017 MontrealAll-around
Bronze medal – third place2018 DohaTeam
Bronze medal – third place2018 DohaVault
Asian Championships
Gold medal – first place2012 PutianFloor exercise
Gold medal – first place2015 HiroshimaTeam
Gold medal – first place2015 HiroshimaFloor exercise
Silver medal – second place2012 PutianTeam
Silver medal – second place2015 HiroshimaVault

Kenzō Shirai (白井 健三, Shirai Kenzō; born August 24, 1996) is a Japanese retired artistic gymnast. He was a member of the gold medal winning teams at the 2016 Olympic Games and the 2015 World Championships. Individually he was the 2016 Olympic bronze medalist on vault, a three-time World Champion on floor exercise (2013, 2015, 2017), and the 2017 World Champion on vault.

Early life

Shirai was born in Yokohama, Kanagawa. Like his older brothers, he started gymnastics with parents Masaki and Norimi, first coaches and home club owners. Shirai said, "For as long as I can remember, I was a gym rat." Instead of paying day care, parents took him to their work. Practicing a six-hour session 5–7 days per week, Shirai attended regular school,[3] which was atypical for an elite athlete. After he graduated Kishine High School in March 2015, he was accepted to attend/represent new home club of Nittaidai on the southern Tokyo border where other Japanese gymnasts also trained, including mentor Kōhei Uchimura.

Career

2013

Shirai, barely over 17 years of age, was the youngest male artistic gymnast participating at the 2013 World Championships in Antwerp.[4] On floor exercise, he qualified in first with a score of 16.233, 0.633 points over Brazil's Diego Hypólito. During the event final, he scored 16.000 to win gold over the USA's Jake Dalton. In doing so, he became youngest ever World Champion on floor exercise in men's artistic gymnastics.[5] On vault, Shirai qualified to the event final in first but ended up placing fourth.

At this competition, Shirai successfully competed three new skills, which were named after him in the Code of Points. On vault, he completed a triple-twisting Yurchenko while on floor exercise he completed a backward quadruple twisting layout and forward triple twisting layout.[6]

2014

At the 2014 World Championships, Shirai helped Japan win silver as a team, only 0.1 point behind China. Individually he qualified for the floor exercise and vault finals. During the floor exercise final, Shirai stepped out of bounds, incurring a 0.1 penalty which ended up costing him the gold as he lost to Russian Denis Ablyazin by 0.017 points. On vault, Shirai finished fourth for the second year in a row.[7]

2015

At the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow, Shirai helped Japan win team gold for first time since 1978.[8] Shirai posted the top score on floor exercise of the whole meet, and it was also the only value above 16.000 points. In the individual event finals, Shirai qualified for both floor exercise and vault, winning gold on the former and ranking seventh on latter.[9]

At the Toyota Cup in December, Shirai verified his fourth eponymous skill and third on floor exercise: a triple-twisting double layout.[10]

2016

Shirai competed at the 2016 Olympic Games. At 19 years, 11 months and 15 days old, Shirai became Japan's youngest and only teen male gymnast in history to ever win Olympic gold after the Japanese men's squad won the team gold medal. In the vault final, Shirai successfully originated a new skill: a three and a half twisting yurchenko vault (an additional half twist from his original eponymous vault). He ended up winning Olympic bronze behind Ri Se-gwang and Denis Ablyazin.[11] In the floor exercise final, Shirai finished fourth.[12]

2017

In February, Shirai competed at the Melbourne World Cup, Shirai won gold on floor exercise, vault, and horizontal bar and won silver on parallel bars. Additionally, he verified his sixth eponymous skill and third on vault, a "full (1/1) on–double full off".[13]

At the 2017 World Championships in Montreal, Shirai made the individual all-around, floor exercise, and vault finals, medalling in each. In the all-around, he won bronze with an 86.431, just 0.017 behind silver medal-winning Lin Chaopan.[14] On floor exercise, Shirai defended his gold, earning a score 1.1 points ahead of second place finisher Artem Dolgopyat. On vault, Shirai won the title ahead of runner-up Igor Radivilov.[15]

2018

In March 2018, Shirai competed at the 2018 American Cup. He ended up placing sixth due to a few errors and falls on horizontal bar and pommel horse.[16] Shirai recovered by winning the Tokyo World Cup the following month.[17]

In a series of domestic competitions held locally between April and August, Shirai won all-around silver medals at the All-Japan Championships and NHK Trophy, and won the All-Japan Student Championships. Shirai was also able to win an individual gold medal on floor exericse with silver medal on vault at the All-Japan Event Championships.

At the 2018 World Championships in Doha, Japan won team bronze. Shirai was unable to defend any of his 2017 titles; however he still won silver on floor exercise and bronze on vault.[18]

2019

In early 2019, Shirai competed at the 2019 Tokyo World Cup. Like 2018, he was supposed to start his season off at the 2019 American Cup, but he withdrew in order to treat a left ankle injury,[19] which was sustained about a week before he began traveling. Due to the injury, Shirai simplified certain skills in his routines for the competition in Tokyo. Shirai ultimately failed to defend his gold medal from 2018, but he did manage to win bronze with the combined total of 82.964, despite still recovering from injury.[20]

On April 26–28, 2019, Shirai competed at the 2019 All-Japan Championships, where he placed 30th. Shirai also only managed one top-three score for any apparatus, and second highest for floor exercise (14.533) behind Kazuki Minami (14.633).

On May 18–19, 2019, Shirai competed at the 2019 NHK Trophy. Due to lingering injury issues with the left ankle, he was unable to perform as well at the competition when compared to most others that would also include his performance there last year. Shirai placed 23rd with a 243.794 combined score. He was unable to achieve a top three score on any of the apparatuses, not even on his signatures of floor exercise or vault.[21]

On June 21–23, 2019, Shirai competed at the 2019 All-Japan Apparatus Championships, hoping he would do well enough to secure a spot on the Japanese men's national team and compete as part of the next world championships held in the autumn of 2019. He qualified for three individual event finals, which were floor exercise, vault, and horizontal bar, ranking second, fourth, and sixth respectively. In the finals, he proceeded to finish in third (14.900), fifth (14.433), and eighth (11.200) place respectively for each of these apparatuses.

In 2019, for the first time since Shirai's debut competition in 2013, he did not make the Japanese men's national team, and was excluded to compete at the 2019 World Championships.[22]

On December 14–15, 2019, Shirai again competed at the local 2019 Toyota International Cup but he withdrew from all events at the end, citing ongoing ankle injuries.

2020–2021

On December 10–13, 2020, then postgraduate at Nittaidai, Shirai competed again at the 2020 All-Japan Championships, placing 18th in the all-around (167.196), and fourth on floor exercise (15.166).

Due to public health issues of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo were delayed by one year until July 23–August 8, 2021.[23][24] In 2020, Shirai reluctantly began to consider retirement because of persistent injuries, but returned in early 2021 to compete at the 2021 All-Japan Championships, still trying to make it to the local Olympic Games. After not qualifying, he announced his immediate retirement from AG on June 16, 2021,[2] also missing him the 2021 World Championships in the Japanese city of Kitakyushu.

Competitive history

Competitive history of Kenzō Shirai
Year Event Team AA FX PH SR VT PB HB
2012
Asian Championships2nd place, silver medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)6
2013
World Championships—N/a1st place, gold medalist(s)4
2014
World Championships2nd place, silver medalist(s)2nd place, silver medalist(s)4
2015 Cottbus World Challenge Cup1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)6
Asian Championships1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)2nd place, silver medalist(s)
World Championships1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)7
2016 Baku World Challenge Cup1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)4
Olympic Games1st place, gold medalist(s)43rd place, bronze medalist(s)
2017 Melbourne World Cup1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)2nd place, silver medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)
World Championships—N/a3rd place, bronze medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)1st place, gold medalist(s)
2018 American Cup6
Tokyo World Cup1st place, gold medalist(s)
World Championships3rd place, bronze medalist(s)72nd place, silver medalist(s)3rd place, bronze medalist(s)
2019 Tokyo World Cup3rd place, bronze medalist(s)
2020 All-Japan Senior Championships24
All-Japan Championships1847
2021 NHK Trophy1st place, gold medalist(s)
All-Japan Event Championships2nd place, silver medalist(s)7

Eponymous skills

Shirai is officially credited with 6 original skill names. Current 2022–2024 quad's D-scores below held up since competing last in the FIG's earlier 2017–2021 CoP for MAG:

Apparatus Name(s) Description(s) Difficulty Verification Competition Achieved
FX
 Shirai or Shirai-Nguyen* backward (bwd) quadruple (4/1)-twisting (back) layout (somersault), or quadruple twist (straight back) somersault backwards (bwds) F (0.6) Automatic 2013 World Championships
Shirai 2 forward (fwd) or front triple (3/1)-twisting straight (somersault), or (forward or front layout) triple twist somersault forwards (fwds)
Shirai 3 backward triple-twisting double (2/1) straight (back somersault), and aka (a) "triple (twist) double (back)" layout somersault backwards H (0.8) Petition1 2015 Toyota International Cup
VT
 Shirai or Shirai-Kim* Round off back handspring (or Yurchenko entry) into (back layout) triple twist, or a "triple-twisting (straight back) Yurchenko" (abbreviated as "TTY") 5.6
(was 6.0)		 Automatic 2013 World Championships
Shirai 2 Round off back handspring or Yurchenko entry into (straight back) 3½ twist, or 3½-twisting (back layout) Yurchenko (abbreviated as 3.5Y) 6.0
(was 6.4)		 2016 Summer Olympic Games
Shirai 3 Round off–full (1/1)-twisting back handspring or Scherbo entry into (back layout) double twist, and aka (a) "full (twist) on–(straight back) double full (twist) off" 5.4 2017 Melbourne World Cup[25]

*Such eponymous skills have taken official names of two originators, but evolving skill factors like one athlete's greater success shortened name for only that gymnast.
1Except the Shirai 3 on FX that was verified via the FIG's petition process due to group of meet with, others getting automatic official naming after the originating meet.

Miscellaneous

In October 2017, as the 2017 World Championships just finished up in Montreal, a social media video showed Shirai in highly competent delivery of the Mustafina on floor, or triple Y-turn,[26] which has an E (0.5) D-score in the 2017–2021 CoP for WAG—officially named after Russian gymnast Aliya Mustafina. Shirai was then also observed completing additional skills on even more WAG apparatuses, such as the execution of a partial routine on uneven bars,[27] at least to comparable levels. In December 2018, another clip was posted and compared of Shirai reproducing compatriot Mai Murakami's entire competition floor routine to music with her hardest skills—many not assessed for scoring of MAG—such as the Gomez on floor, or quadruple turn with free leg below horizontal (originated by Spain's Elena Gómez at the 2002 World Championships in Debrecen),[28] which was another skill given FIG's top D-score of E (0.5) for all WAG dance elements in 2017–2021 quad. With Shirai's knowledge, there had been another compilation video then shared by the fans showing Shirai training some skills/combos that had potential to be part of future arsenal to perform possible advanced original floor and vault skills—could include "RO–BH–4½ twist punch ½ or full" on floor, and "½ on–3½ off" on vault too.[29]

References

  1. "Kenzo SHIRAI". olympicchannel.com. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved September 21, 2020.
  2. "Rio gymnastic gold medalist Kenzo Shirai retires from competition". kyodonews.net. June 16, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2022 – via Kyodo News.
  3. "115: Kenzo Shirai – GymCastic". gymcastic.com. September 10, 2014. Archived from the original on September 25, 2015. Retrieved September 21, 2015.
  4. "Kenzo Shirai (JPN) dominates Olympic Hopes International, Penza". Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved October 5, 2013.
  5. Universal Sports Network (October 5, 2013), Kenzo Shirai Becomes Floor Champ – Universal Sports, archived from the original on November 4, 2019, retrieved June 18, 2019
  6. "McKayla Maroney wins worlds vault". ESPN. October 5, 2013.
  7. FIG Channel (January 27, 2015), HIGHLIGHTS – 2014 Artistic Worlds, Nanning (CHN) – Men's FX, PH, SR – We are Gymnastics!, archived from the original on May 9, 2021, retrieved May 8, 2020
  8. "Kings of Gymnastics: Kohei Uchimura leads Japan to first World team gold in nearly 40 years". World Gymnastics. October 28, 2015.
  9. "46th ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, GLASGOW (GBR) Men's Apparatus Final" (PDF). USA Gymnastics. October 31, 2015.
  10. "Eight new elements named, added to Men's Gymnastics Code of Points". World Gymnastics. February 14, 2016.
  11. "Japan's Shirai performs new technique to win Olympic bronze in vault". Mainichi Shimbun. August 16, 2016.
  12. "Rio 2016 Gymnastics Artistic floor exercises men Results".
  13. "Eight new elements named, added to the Men's Gymnastics Code of Points". World Gymnastics. April 4, 2017.
  14. "47th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships 2017 Montréal (CAN) Men's Individual All-Around Final" (PDF). USA Gymnastics. October 5, 2017.
  15. "47th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships 2017 Montréal (CAN) Men's Apparatus Finals" (PDF). USA Gymnastics. October 7, 2017.
  16. "2018 American Cup Meet Results" (PDF). USA Gymnastics. March 3, 2018.
  17. "FIG Individual All-Around World Cup 2018" (PDF). USA Gymnastics. April 14, 2018.
  18. "2018 World Championships Men's Results". The Gymternet. November 29, 2018.
  19. "Mai Murakami finishes third at American Cup". March 3, 2019. Archived from the original on April 3, 2019. Retrieved April 19, 2019 – via Japan Times.
  20. Ginástica Brasil (April 11, 2019), Men's AA World Cup – Tokyo 2019, archived from the original on November 4, 2019, retrieved June 17, 2019
  21. The Gymternet (July 28, 2019), 2019 NHK Trophy Men's Results, archived from the original on July 28, 2019, retrieved July 27, 2019
  22. "Uchimura, Shirai and Murakami to miss World Championships". olympics.com. September 1, 2019. Retrieved September 14, 2022 – via International Olympic Committee (IOC).
  23. Panja, Tariq (March 28, 2020). "Tokyo Olympics Organizers Considering July 2021 for Opening Ceremony". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 4, 2020. Retrieved April 4, 2020.
  24. "Olympic gymnastics qualification system changed following all-around World Cup cancellation". February 11, 2021. Archived from the original on February 12, 2021. Retrieved March 1, 2021 – via insidethegames.biz.
  25. "Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique – View FigNews". fig-gymnastics.com. Archived from the original on July 29, 2017. Retrieved April 6, 2017 – via International Gymnastics Federation (FIG).
  26. Sam's YoutubeChannel (October 19, 2017), Kenzo Shirai Triple Y turn!!, archived from the original on November 3, 2019, retrieved January 12, 2018
  27. Gym FanBR (November 8, 2017), Kenzo Shirai training Uneven Bars., archived from the original on November 4, 2019, retrieved January 12, 2018
  28. sporteverywhere (December 28, 2018), Kenzo Shirai Performing Mai Murakami's Floor Routine, archived from the original on November 3, 2019, retrieved March 3, 2019
  29. sporteverywhere (December 21, 2018), Kenzo Shirai (JPN) in Training, archived from the original on February 29, 2020, retrieved June 5, 2020