Gymnastics Weekly News: Uchimura Kohei elected as Japanese Gymnastics Association director

Two-time Olympic gymnastics all-around champion Uchimura Kohei of Japan may be retired but is still leaving his mark on the sport.

This week, the Japanese Gymnastics Association announced that the legendary gymnast, who won six-straight world all-around titles in addition to his Olympic wins, will serve a two-year term as a director. The term begins in June.

Uchimura, 34, announced his retirement from the sport in January 2022 but made clear then that he wanted to remain close to the sport.

“This might be the end, but it’s also the beginning,” he said at the time, later adding, “I really don’t want to do anything else. All I know is gymnastics. Uchimura Kohei is made of gymnastics.”

The 28-time world and Olympic medallist also talked about his desire to give back to the sport that had shaped his life.

“I’m grateful and I want to give back to the sport. I feel like I still have a lot to learn about gymnastics. I want to more than perfect it – take it to a whole other level,” Uchimura explained.

• Long live the King: Uchimura Kohei says sayonara to career - but not gymnastics

NCAA action continues after stellar opening weekend

The NCAA women’s collegiate gymnastics season kicked off in style with an opening weekend that saw 2020 Olympic all-around champion Sunisa Lee and reigning NCAA champion Trinity Thomas register the first 10.0 scores of the season.

Defending team champions the University of Oklahoma posted the top score (197.925) and is currently ranked first. The University of Florida (197.750), Cal-Berkeley (197.475), the University of Michigan (197.400) and Auburn University (197.350) round out the top five.

Here’s a look at some of the top match-ups ahead this weekend. All times Eastern.

Friday, 13 January
6pm – Louisiana State University at Kentucky (ESPN2)
7pm – Denver, Fisk at Michigan
7pm – Georgia at Missouri (SEC Network)
7:30pm – Auburn at Florida (ESPN 2)
9pm – Best of Utah (Utah, Utah State, Southern Utah and BYU)

Saturday, 14 January
4pm – Michigan State at NC State
4pm – San Jose State at Stanford
5pm – Wasatch Classic, session one (Minnesota, UCLA, Washington, Boise State)
10pm – Wasatch Classic, session two (Cal, Iowa, Oregon State, Pitt)

Monday, 16 January
2pm – Ohio State, Rutgers, Fisk at Georgia
3pm – Oklahoma at LSU

ICYMI: Our complete list of ‘From the Vault’ features

This week, we posted a list of every gymnastics archive video we’ve featured on Olympics.com over the past two years – go ahead, take a little walk down Olympic gymnastics memory lane by clicking here.

From the vault…

This week, we take a look back at the women’s uneven bars final from the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. Romania’s Daniela Silivas won the first of her three apparatus gold medals in the final with East Germany’s Dagmar Kersten and the Soviet Union’s Elena Shushunova taking silver and bronze, respectively.

En route to gold, Silivas recorded 10.0 scores for her compulsory, team option and final routine.