Seoul Gazette - Olympic legends: from Kohei Uchimura to Simone Biles - Part 5

- Kohei Uchimura: the beautiful move -

Kohei Uchimura, the son of gymnasts, was in the gym by the age of three.

"King Kohei" strove for elegance in his every move and won back-to-back all-around Olympic titles at the 2012 and 2016 Games.

In 2016 in Rio, he snatched gold on the final apparatus after a dazzling horizontal-bar routine, a feat he later called his comeback miracle.

He became the first gymnast in 44 years to win back-to-back individual all-around Olympic golds.

His reign ended cruelly when he fell off the bar during the qualifying rounds at his home Olympics in Tokyo in 2021.

- Allyson Felix: glut of medals -

The grande dame of American track and field is the only woman to have won seven Olympic golds.

With 11 medals she is also the most-decorated Olympian.

She won her first medal, a 200m silver, at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and her last, a bronze in the 400m, in Tokyo in 2021. In between, there was a 200m individual gold in London 2012 and six golds in relays.

Felix took part in the Tokyo Games three years after giving birth to a daughter after an emergency C-section.

A vocal advocate of the rights of working mothers, she split with long-time sponsors Nike when they refused to guarantee her a new contract after she became pregnant.

- Katie Ledecky: freestyle queen -

At the Paris Olympics, the 27-year-old US swim star is aiming to become the first woman swimmer to win four consecutive Olympic golds in the same event (800m freestyle in her case).

She was just 15 when she won her first 800m at the London Games in 2012, a feat she repeated in Rio and then Tokyo.

Ledecky was unbeaten in the event for 13 years but in February she was bested by 17-year-old Canadian prodigy Summer McIntosh at an event in Florida.

She will also be trying for a third-straight gold in the longest pool event, the 1500m. She has held both world records since 2013.

Ledecky has already made history. In 2023, she won her 16th individual title at the world championships, one more than the previous record set by Michael Phelps.

- Simone Biles: preternatural talent -

All eyes in Paris will be on the woman, widely considered the greatest gymnast of all time, who has redefined the sport.

The pint-sized 27-year-old Biles dazzled at the Rio Games in 2016, winning four golds: the all-around, vault, floor and team events.

Five years later, she dramatically pulled out of most of her events at the Tokyo Games, suffering from a debilitating temporary spatial awareness condition known as "the twisties."

She made a spectacular return to the international stage at the world championships in October 2023, scooping four golds.

B.Lee--SG