New Olympic men's all-around champion Oka Shinnosuke on being great and grateful
With a historic haul of four medals including three gold at Paris 2024, the 20-year-old wants to carry the mantle for Japanese gymnastics as he embarks on the road to LA28.
Artistic Gymnastics
Gratitude.
For someone whose career once hung in a delicate balance, it’s the first feeling Oka Shinnosuke had when he became an Olympic champion gymnast.
Make that three-time Olympic champion.
“When I was out injured so many people supported me, from the team staff to the coaches to my team-mates,” Oka told Olympics.com, after winning gold in the men’s team event, all-around, and horizontal bar at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, along with a bronze on the parallel bars for good measure.
“I haven’t been able to thank everyone in person but I like to think I was able to show my appreciation through the performances.”
Oka Shinnosuke: Japan's new golden boy
While Oka’s name may have sounded new to many around the world, the 20-year-old had been anything but a nobody in Japan.
Named after a former star baseball player for the Yomiuri Giants, Oka showed promise since taking up the sport at the age of four. After graduating from junior high school, rather than enroling at one of the country’s high school powerhouses, he went to the famed Tokushukai Gymnastics Club which churns out some of Japan’s top gymnasts.
It paid immediate dividends. At the inaugural Junior World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in 2019, Oka struck gold in the team event and all-around, silver on pommel horse, and bronze on the parallel bar.
Oka, however, would miss out on qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 2021 due to a wrist injury that April at the All Japan All-Around Championships. The following year at the same competition, he tore the ACL in his right knee, threatening his career.
Call it the fountain of youth or sheer luck, Oka managed to return to competition in June 2023 at the Asian championships in Singapore. In April 2024, he was second in the All Japans, and a month later punched his first Olympic ticket by winning the NHK Trophy.
We all know what happened next. Oka’s three gold medals in Paris tied the single Games record by a Japanese gymnast, long held by the legendary Kato Sawao at Munich 1972. His tally of four medals were the most in 40 years since Gushiken Koji, who had five at Los Angeles 1984.
Japan had missed out on the team gold by 0.103 at their home Games three years earlier, but Oka helped them win back one of the most crowned jewels in the country’s sporting annals from the People’s Republic of China.
“The team event is something we were all targeting and there was no room for error,” Oka said. “But I still wanted to enjoy it. The all-around I just had to execute. My MO was to perform with gratitude.
“I think we started off well but we made some mistakes early on and dug ourselves into a hole because China were very good. But we never gave up, just regrouped and hung in there until the end.”
The gold medal-winning Japanese men's gymnastics team (L to R): Oka Shinnosuke, Tanigawa, Kaya Kazuma, Sugino Takaaki and Hashimoto Daiki.
Oka Shinnosuke: "I'm glad I stuck with gymnastics"
With the then reigning all-around champion Hashimoto Daiki having a difficult Games, someone had to step up and that someone was Oka, who knows all about resilience.
Since returning home after Paris, Oka has barely rested. He competed in three domestic meets and has been doing one media after another on behalf of his sport - including a gala of Paris Olympic gymnasts on Sunday (29 September) in Kitakyushu - trying to project a positive image as the new face of Japanese men's gymnastics in the footsteps of Hashimoto and the GOAT, Uchimura Kohei.
But Oka does not seem to mind the hectic schedule. Because Oka is grateful, and wants to give back.
“Two years ago, I was ready to make the team for the first time. I had put in the work. But then I ruptured my ACL. It was so frustrating and it’s a moment I don’t think I’ll ever forget,” he called of his climb back from injury.
“But even when I was hurt people stuck by me. I still had Paris to look forward to. If I didn’t have the support I had then, I probably wouldn’t have been in Paris. I wasn’t depressed but just really annoyed. I tried to make the most of it. I thought it was an opportunity to really work on some of the disciplines.
“I’m just really glad I won a gold medal. I’m glad I stuck with gymnastics.”