is a Japanese male

artistic gymnast Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different apparatuses. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which designs the Code of Points and regulates ...

. At the

2018 Youth Olympic Games The 2018 Summer Youth Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de la Juventud de 2018), officially known as the III Summer Youth Olympic Games, and commonly known as Buenos Aires 2018, were an international multi-sport event, sports, cultural, and edu ...

in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he won five gold medals in the all-around, floor, rings, parallel bars, and horizontal bar competitions. He was the first artistic gymnast ever to achieve such a feat in a single Youth Olympic Games.

Personal life

Kitazono was born on 21 October 2002 in Osaka, Japan. He started gymnastics when he was three years old after his mother enrolled him in a nearby gym because he was fascinated with a Japanese superhero television series Kamen Rider Hibiki. Kitazono has received two awards. At the 2018 Japanese Olympic Committee Sports Awards, he received a Rookie Award. In 2019, he received Big Sports Rookie Award at the 53rd TV Asahi Big Sports Awards.

Gymnastics career

2017

In 2017, Kitazono fractured his left ankle during training. The injury was still troubling him at the national trials for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

2018

Kitazono was selected to represent Japan at the third Youth Olympic Games. While there he won an unprecedented five gold medals – in the all-around, floor exercise, rings, parallel bars, and horizontal bar – beating the previous record of three gold medals won by Nikita Nagornyy and

Giarnni Regini-Moran Giarnni Regini-Moran (born 2 August 1998) is a British artistic gymnast representing Great Britain and England internationally. He is the 2022 world champion on floor exercise (the second British world floor champion after Beth Tweddle and the ...

at the

2014 Youth Olympic Games The 2014 Summer Youth Olympics (), officially known as the II Summer Youth Olympic Games , and commonly known as Nanjing 2014 ( zh, c=南京2014, p=Nánjīng Èr Líng yī sì), were the second Summer Youth Olympic Games, an international sports ...

. He finished sixth on pommel horse. In addition to his five gold medals, Kitazono also received a silver medal in the mixed multi-discipline team (teams were randomly composed of gymnasts from various countries and various disciplines). Kitazono was assigned to the team named after British gymnast Max Whitlock. Kitazono later competed at the All-Japan Team Championships where he helped his club finish seventh.

2019

In January, Kitazono competed at the RD761 Junior International Cup where he helped Japan win gold, and individually, he placed first on the all-around, pommel horse, rings and parallel bars, and he placed seventh on the horizontal bar as well as sixth on floor exercise. Kitazono was selected to represent Japan at the inaugural Junior World Championships alongside Ryosuke Doi and

Shinnosuke Oka is a Japanese artistic gymnast. In 2019, he won two gold medals, one silver medal and one bronze medal at the 2019 Junior World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 2019 Junior World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were the inaugural Artistic ...

. While there the team won gold in the team final finishing nearly 3 points ahead of second place Ukraine. Although Kitazono recorded the third-highest all-around score of the day, he was left off the podium due to both teammates scoring higher and the two-per-country rule taking place. During event finals he won gold on pommel horse and parallel bars and placed seventh on floor exercise.

2021

In April, Kitazono damaged the ligaments in both elbows while competing on the horizontal bar at the All-Japan Championships, their national selection trials for the

2020 Olympic Games The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

at home in Tokyo. At the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

in Tokyo, Kitazono, 18, competed as part of Team

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

's relatively young men's team on team event that also included Daiki Hashimoto, 19,

Kazuma Kaya is a Japanese artistic gymnast. Kaya was part of the Japanese team that won the gold medal in the team event at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. He also won a gold medal in the 2015 Asian Championships in Hiroshima. At the 201 ...

, 24, and

Kakeru Tanigawa is a Japanese artistic gymnast. He is the 2018 and 2019 Japanese National All Around Champion. His older brother, Wataru Tanigawa, is also an international gymnast. In 2018, he won the silver medal in the men's team event at the 2018 Asian Gam ...

, 22, with none having any past Olympic experience. With a completely new roster, no former Olympic male gymnast of

returned to lead team event. Kitazono would later win the Olympic team silver in the men's team all-around competition. The team posted a total score of 262.397, which was only 0.103 behind the winning Russian Olympic Committee team. If

had managed to secure team gold at these home Games, Kitazono would have broken the record and become

's youngest male gymnast in history to win Olympic gold. He would have been 18 years, 9 months and 5 days old. The record is currently being held by

Kenzō Shirai is a Japanese men's former athlete of artistic gymnastics ( AG). Born in Yokohama, Kanagawa, he, a graduate of Kishine High School, joined the Nippon Sport Science University ( Nittaidai). Shirai took the team gold, and a bronze on individual v ...

at 19 years, 11 months and 15 days old, who also became the first ever Japanese male teenage gymnast to win Olympic gold when

took team gold at the 2016 Games. Hashimoto, who was only 6 days older than Shirai, joined him as

's second (youngest) male teenage gymnast to win Olympic gold after winning the individual all-around title in 2021. Shirai broke long-standing record of

Eizo Kenmotsu is a former Japanese artistic gymnast, who won seven world titles and three Olympic gold medals between 1968 and 1979. In retirement, he became a leading Japanese coach. He also served as sports director of the Nippon Sport Science University an ...

, who won team gold as a 20-year-8-month-and-11-day-old nearly 49 years ago at the 1968 Games.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kitazono, Takeru Living people Gymnasts at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics Japanese male artistic gymnasts Medalists at the Junior World Artistic Gymnastics Championships 2002 births Youth Olympic gold medalists for Japan Gymnasts at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gymnasts for Japan Olympic silver medalists for Japan Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in gymnastics 21st-century Japanese people