Akinori Nakayama
Japan
Artistic Gymnastics
Overall Ranks
#6 among Gymnasts
#4 among Male Gymnasts
#2 among Japanese Olympians
Olympic Results
1968
Individual All-Around - Bronze
Team - Gold
Floor Exercise - Silver
Parallel Bars - Gold
Horizontal Bar - Gold
Rings - Gold
1972
Individual All-Around - Bronze
Team - Gold
Floor Exercise - Silver
Rings - Gold
Total
Events - 16
Gold - 6
Silver - 2
Bronze - 2
Akinori Nakayama was born on March 1, 1943 in Nagoya, Japan, and had his first big international victory in gymnastics in 1965, winning the all-around at the Summer Universiade. The next year, he won 6 medals at the World Championships, which helped him earn a spot on the Olympic Team in Mexico City in 1968.
Japan had won the team gold in each of the past 2 Olympics, and they were only getting stronger. In Mexico City, they defeated the Soviet team by 4.8 points to win the gold medal for the third straight time, which was the first Olympic medal for Nakayama, who was the #2 scorer on the Japanese team.
The individual all-around results came from the team competition, and Nakayama's scores were high enough to earn him the bronze medal, behind teammate Sawao Kato and Soviet Mikhail Voronin. He qualified for 5 of the 6 event finals, only missing out on the pommel horse.
In the floor exercise, he qualified #2 behind Kato, but the lead was too much to make up in the final, and he remained in second place and won the silver medal. In the vault, he was #7 before the final, and only the top 6 got in, but Kato gave up his spot to Nakayama, who was only able to improve his standing to 5th place.
In the parallel bars, he was the top qualifier, and had the top score in the final round, which earned him his first individual gold medal. In the horizontal bar, he and Voronin were tied for first after qualifying, and each put up an identical 9.8 score in the final, so they were each awarded the gold medal, the second for Nakayama.
In the rings, Nakayama was the #2 qualifier, again behind Kato, but this time, he easily posted the highest score of the final, and that score put him ahead of his teammate and earned him his third individual gold of the games. His 6 total medals were the most for any athlete in Mexico City, tied with Vera Caslavska.
In 1970, he again won 6 medals at the World Championships, and this time, 4 of them were gold. This made him one of the favorites again heading to Munich in 1972. Just as before, the Japanese team won the gold medal, this time even more easily, finishing 7.2 points ahead of the USSR, with Nakayama only the 4th-highest scorer on the team.
The individual all-around was different this time, as the top 36 athletes from the team event advanced to a final round, which included Nakayama, who qualified 4th, behind 3 teammates. In the final round, Nakayama had the highest score among the Japanese athletes, and the second-highest overall, which boosted him ahead of Shigeru Kasamatsu and into third place, earning him a repeat bronze medal in the all-around.
He qualified for 4 event finals, missing out on the pommel horse in a tiebreaker, and the vault as well. He was part of a 5-way tie for second in the floor exercise after qualifying, behind Kato, but Kato had a poor showing in the final, leaving the medals wide open. Nakayama posted the #2 score in the final, so he ended up winning the silver medal, just like 4 years earlier.
He was tied for third on the parallel bars after qualifying, but a low score of 9.25 in the final dropped him to 5th place. In the horizontal bar, he also finished 5th after not improving on his qualifying placement. In the rings, however, he had a big lead after qualifying, and performed well enough that no one was able to overtake him, so he was able to repeat as gold medalist.
He retired soon after those Olympics, and went on to become vice president of the Japanese Gymnastics Federation, and also worked as a college gymnastics coach. He never won the all-around at the Olympics, but he took the bronze both times, and won 4 individual gold medals over 2 Olympic Games, finishing his short career with 10 total Olympic medals, which makes him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.
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