Gymnastics News Weekly: Olympic champion Hashimoto Daiki leads Japanese worlds squad

The Olympic artistic gymnastics men’s all-around champion from Tokyo 2020 in 2021, Hashimoto Daiki, will lead Team Japan at October’s World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool, England.

The Japanese Gymnastics Federation announced its men’s and women’s 2022 worlds teams after qualifying a spot to the event at the recent Asian Gymnastics Championships.

Joining Hashimoto on the men’s side will be Kamoto Yuya, Doi Ryosuke, Tanigawa Wataru and Tanigawa Kakeru.

The youngest man ever to win all-around gold at the Olympics, Hashimoto followed that success up with two silver medals at the 2021 world championships in the all-around and horizontal bar finals.

Japan will send a team of newcomers in the women’s competition with Miyata Shoko, Kasahara Arisa, Yamada Chiharu, Sakaguchi Ayaka, and Fukusawa Kokoro being tapped for the event.

Notably absent are longtime staple of the team Murakami Mai, who announced her retirement late last year, and reigning world balance beam champion Ashikawa Urara, who was not named to the team despite participating in the qualifying events.

Competition in Liverpool begins 29 October 2022.

This week, Hashimoto was also officially named as one of the faces of the Japanese Olympic movement.

The University of Alaska women’s gymnastics team has been reinstated

After nearly two years of fundraising, the University of Alaska’s women’s gymnastics team has reached an $888,000 goal that will allow the program, previously cut due to budget concerns, to be re-instated permanently.

"I'm very competitive. Every single gymnast is very competitive," said head coach Marie-Sophie Boggasch. "When we initially heard the UA board of regents' motion, we both cried for maybe five minutes. And then we got on Zoom and said, 'Alright, team. We're going to fight and persevere."

The funds came from nearly 1,000 supporters across 37 U.S. states and six countries, according to a release from the University. Donations ranged from $5 to an anonymous $50,000 donation.

Olympic team gold medallist Lilia Akhaimova retires

Lilia Akhaimova, who helped ROC win women’s team gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in 2021, has retired according to a report from RSport.

"It's true that Lilia Akhaimova decided to put her career on hold,” said national team coach Valentina Rodionenko. “She thinks it's time for her to finish. She had an injury. There was a long recovery after her. Then she still prepared for the Olympics. Now Lilia cannot fully heal her back, so she accepted this decision.”

In Tokyo, Akhaimova was instrumental to the ROC gold medal, adding a 14.733 on vault during the team final.

She also advanced to the vault final where she finished seventh.

In addition to her Olympic team gold medal, Akhaimova was part of two Russian teams that won world silver in 2018 and 2019.

From the vault…

This week, we look back at the U.S. women, nicknamed the Magnificent Seven, competing on the floor exercise during the compulsory round of the women's team event at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Kerri Strug led the rotation with a 9.825 final score, helping Team USA to its first women's gymnastics team gold medal.