The Men’s Artistic Gymnastics all-around finals had many favorites marching onto the mats. But one rotation at a time, some of the grandmasters slipped down the ranks, while an Olympic debutant held onto a strong lead. The Japanese gymnast from the Men’s Team gold winning side, Oka Shinnosuke, put on a show for the world to watch! And with a final 86.832 on the board, he has been titled, All-Around champion at Paris Olympics 2024!

These results were bound, as with the Michigan Wolverines from the USA, Paul Juda, and Fred Richard hovering at the table bottom nearly from the start, the 20-year-old prodigy, Shinnosuke made no mistakes to give up his lead. Slating himself in the all-around finals, the Tokushukai Gymnastics Club star was second on the qualification board with an 86.865. Indeed, he was higher than the defending Olympic champion, Hashimoto Daiki! And as of rotation three, in the finale, Shinnosuke led 2 rotations as the top ranker. He entered the fourth leg of the event with a 42.932, while the USA stars had been faltering substantially on D-day, which gave him a lead over Juda and Richard by more than 10 spots.

But, who is this new master on the throne? To answer that, 2003-born Shinnosuke is a Japanese wunderkind on the mat who grabbed the 2019 Junior World all-around title. Following that, with his 2023 Asian all-around gold, he announced his arrival on the international mats as a potential challenger. Well, he seems to have a versatile resume. Bagging the parallel bar and horizontal bar silvers at the Asian Championships last year, too, wasn’t a job too mighty for him. And now, he has dethroned the Hashimoto, and surpassed Zhang Boheng’s scores, to win his second golden hardware in Paris!

Despite Shinnosuke’s vault 14.300 in the 4th rotation, Oleg Verniaiev nailed his parallel bars performance, bagging a strong 15.100, With this, he climbed to the top. Whereas, Shinnosuke slipped slight beyond the top three. But as Verniaiev scored a weak 12.700 on the high bars, Shinnosuke, who had been consistently throughout, aced his parallel bar routine, clinching a strong 15.100. And that put him back on the top. To seal things, in the last rotation on the high bars, Shinnosuke aced moves like the big Kolman, layout Tkachev, and a double double layout. Complexity and finesse blended well, he was just too good!

A little more about Oka Shinnosuke, the new all-around Olympic champion

As per FIG, Shinnosuke had taken to the mat when he was just four. At a very nascent age, he was inspired by Isao Yoneda, the Japanese veteran who bagged the horizontal bar bronze and the Team gold at the Athens Games 2008. While he began professional gymnasts just a few years back, he was never short of ambition. And to focus his undivided attention on the sport, Shinnosuke made crucial calls.

In 2019, he moved to Kamakura, to be able to join the Tokushukai Gymnastics Club. Even if this meant, he lived away from his family while he was just 16. Starting out with the Junior Asian Championships in 2018, he was part of the silver winning Japanese contingent. More so, he even bagged an all-around bronze. And, today, he continued Japan’s all-around Olympic winning streak.