Naoya Tsukahara

Naoya Tsukahara
Personal information
Country represented	Japan
Born	June 25, 1977 (1977-06-25) (age 34) Nagasaki, Japan
Height	1.60m
Weight	65kg
Discipline	Men's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior
Medal record Men's Artistic Gymnastics Olympic Games Gold 2004 Athens Team competition World Championships Silver 1999 Tianjin All-around Silver 1999 Tianjin Parallel Bars Bronze 1997 Lausanne All-around Bronze 1997 Lausanne Parallel Bars Bronze 2003 Anaheim Team competition Bronze 2006 Aarhus Team competition

Naoya Tsukahara (Japanese:塚原 直也 Tsukahara Naoya, born June 25, 1977) is a Japanese artistic gymnast and Olympic Gold Medalist.^[1] He is the son of the former Japanese gymnast, Mitsuo Tsukahara, who was also a multi Gold Medalist in Olympic Games.^[2] He competed throughout the late 1990s and was still competing as of summer 2009.

Competitive History

Late 1990s

Naoya participated at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. The Japanese team finished 10th in the team final. Individually, Naoya qualified into the all-around final and finished 12th in the final.^{[citation needed]}

Although Naoya did not get any medal in the 1996 Olympics, he had been quite successful after that. In the 1997 World Championships, he won two bronze medals in all-around and on parallel bars. In the 1999 World Championships, he had pushed himself to a higher level of success, winning a silver in all-around and on parallel bars.

2000 Summer Olympics

Following his successes at the World Championships, Naoya eventually came to his second Olympic Games, the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. This time, unfortunately, the Japanese gymnastics team was edged by the Russian team for a bronze medal. Individually, Naoya qualified 6th and 10th into the horizontal bar and all-around final respectively. He finally finished 18th in all-around final, and a fall in the horizontal bar final made him come last, with a score of 8.825.

2001-2003

After the 2000 Summer Olympics, Naoya could not regain his form of 2000. In addition, there were some fabulous gymnasts rose in Japan, including Hiroyuki Tomita, Isao Yoneda and Takehiro Kashima. Naoya's character in the national team changed from an all-around competitor into an anchor for the Japanese gymnastics team.

In the 2003 World Championships, Naoya made into the all-around and parallel bars final, finishing 7th in the all-around while his teammates, Hiroyuki Tomita, won a bronze in that event. Individually, Naoya placed 4th on his strongest event, parallel bars with a score of 9.675.

2004 Summer Olympics

Naoya made himself into the 2004 Summer Olympics held in Athens, Greece. The Japanese team showed strong performances and eventually won a team gold medal. Naoya placed 4th on floor exercise in prelim with a 9.725, the same score of his teammates, Isao Yoneda and Daisuke Nakano^{[citation needed]}. However, the tie-breaker policy favoured his two teammates into the final. He did not qualified into the all-around final.

After the 2004 Summer Olympics

Naoya was 27 by the time that the Olympic Games in Athens finished, which is an age regarding 'old' for gymnastics. Nevertheless, he was still competing. He won a bronze medal with the team in the 2006 World Championships^{[citation needed]}. Naoya could not make himself in the 2008 Summer Olympics but he was still competing as of Summer 2010.

References

1. ^ Olympic results
2. ^ Mitsuo Tsukahara Olympic results

External links

• Official site(Japanese)
• Naoya Tsukahara at Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique

Gymnastics portal

Persondata
Name	Tsukahara, Naoya
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	June 25, 1977
Place of birth	Nagasaki, Japan
Date of death
Place of death