Kenzō Shirai

Kenzō Shirai
Shirai at the 2013 World Championships in Antwerp - Individual Vault Final
Nickname(s)	Mr Twist Twist Prince (Japanese)
Country represented	Japan
Born	(1996-08-24) August 24, 1996 Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan
Height	163 cm (5 ft 4 in)
Weight	54 kg (119 lb)
Discipline	Men's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior International Elite
Club	NSSU
Eponymous skills	Shirai or Shirai-Nguyen (floor): layout quadruple twist Shirai 2 (floor): forward (front) layout triple twist Shirai 3 (floor): triple-twisting double (back) layout Shirai or Shirai-Kim (vault): Yurchenko triple twist or TTY Shirai 2 (vault): Yurchenko (back layout) 3½ twist Shirai 3 (vault): Scherbo on into (layout) double twist off
Medal record Event 1st 2nd 3rd Summer Olympics 1 0 1 World Championships 5 3 3 Total 6 3 4 Men's artistic gymnastics Representing Japan Olympic Games 2016 Rio de Janeiro Team 2016 Rio de Janeiro Vault World Championships 2013 Antwerp Floor Exercise 2015 Glasgow Team 2015 Glasgow Floor Exercise 2017 Montreal Floor Exercise 2017 Montreal Vault 2014 Nanning Team 2014 Nanning Floor Exercise 2018 Doha Floor Exercise 2017 Montreal All-Around 2018 Doha Team 2018 Doha Vault

Kenzō Shirai (白井 健三, Shirai Kenzō, born August 24, 1996, in Yokohama, Japan) is a Japanese artistic gymnast. His wins include the team gold and also individual bronze in the vault finals at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Since 2013, he has won multiple medals at the world championships.

Personal life

Practicing one 6-hour session 5–7 days per week, Shirai had attended regular school—atypical for many elite athletes. After he graduated high school in March 2015, Shirai got accepted to study/compete at his now home club Nippon Sport Science University (NSSU) in south Tokyo city limits, where many other members of Japan’s national artistic gymnastics team also use the university’s facilities to study and/or train—this includes alumnus and Shirai’s mentor Kōhei Uchimura.

Career

Shirai had his start in gymnastics at a very young age, after being influenced by family members—parents and two older brothers. Shirai said, “For as long as I can remember, I was a gym rat.” His parents were owners of his first home club, Tsurumi Junior Gymnastics Club. Instead of paying for daycare, they brought him to the gym. Shirai also did especially love to train the trampoline, which helped develop the talent for twisting skills and mastery of their extreme combinations.

More than any active gymnast, six original skills—three each on floor and vault—have been officially named after Shirai, automatically or via petition, since Shirai was the first to successfully complete them at a major international competition. Here, the six original skills are the 1) Shirai or Shirai-Nguyen on floor (FX)—quadruple-twisting back layout, 2) Shirai 2 on floor—straight front triple full, 3) Shirai 3 on floor—triple-twisting double back layout, 4) Shirai or Shirai-Kim on vault (VT)—Yurchenko (skills from a vault family of men's artistic gymnastics [MAG] with roundoff [RO]–back-handspring [BH] on entry to the vaulting table) triple twist or triple-twisting Yurchenko (TTY), 5) Shirai 2 on vault—3½-twisting Yurchenko or Yurchenko 3½, and 6) Shirai 3 on vault—RO–full-twisting BH (Scherbo) onto double twist or “full on–double full off”. The corresponding difficulty score (D-score) values in effect—F (0.6), F (0.6), H (0.8), 5.6, 6.0 and 5.4—assigned ahead by the governing body on all disciplines of competitive gymnastics, including both MAG and women's artistic gymnastics (WAG), International Federation of Gymnastics (FIG), have been made relevant in the 2017–2020 Code of Points (CoP).

When he was first able to perform the quadruple-twisting layout on floor with hard landing, Shirai was just 14 years old. After 16-year-old high school sophomore Shirai first won floor exercise at the 2013 All-Japan Apparatus Championships, he became the youngest man ever to join the Japanese national artistic gymnastics team, and compete internationally.

Just 19 years and 11 months old, Shirai was entered into record books at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, immediately following the team event finals, as the prodigy becoming Japan’s youngest and only teenage male gymnast in history to win Olympic gold—securing record long held by Eizo Kenmotsu who became the youngest himself 48 years earlier as a 20-year-and-8-month-old at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, also right after the team event finals.

Before Shirai had successfully executed the 3½ twists needed for the Shirai 2 on vault at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, he was known for the ability to consistently perform all 3 twists fully for the Shirai on vault, or Yurchenko triple twist, a feat accomplished just by a handful of athletes such as Shirai’s teammate plus role model Kōhei Uchimura. Progressing long stagnant D-scores on certain floor skills/combinations was seen as “impossible” before Shirai did them.

2013 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, Belgium

In October 2013, shortly after turning 17, Shirai was the youngest man selected to compete at the 2013 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, one of two major FIG-organised international events, for the first time, in Antwerp, Belgium. He with Kim Hee Hoon of South Korea successfully completed a same new skill then—now officially named the Shirai or Shirai-Kim on vault, or Yurchenko triple twist or TTY—automatically qualifying it for adoption of both gymnasts’ names. Shirai and Tuan Dat Nguyen of Vietnam likewise successfully completed another same new skill too on floor—the Shirai or Shirai-Nguyen on floor, or quadruple-twisting back layout. Both skills bear the official names of two gymnasts, but each skill has evolved separately to have its name shortened over time by many in practice to only the Shirai, owing much to Shirai first qualifying for both these individual finals, and then also finishing well in them—Kim and Nguyen did not qualify for their own individual finals. Shirai became relevant fast at the senior international elite circuit competitions due to his constant presence, continual participation, friendly disposition and likeability. Shirai did successfully originated still one more skill all on his own here in Antwerp to now officially bear only his name–the Shirai 2 on floor, or front layout triple twist. D-scores awarded the Shirai (or Shirai-Kim) on vault, plus Shirai (or Shirai-Nguyen) and Shirai 2 on floor exercise were 6.0, plus F (0.6) and F (0.6) respectively in that quad's 2013–2016 CoP. The difficulty values for Shirai’s floor skills have held up, but his vault has since been readjusted lower to 5.6 in the next 2017–2020 CoP.

No team event was held at the 2013 WC because it has become the custom to omit team event at any WC, which immediately follow the Olympic Games since 2005. As Shirai did qualify for his very first individual floor and vault event finals here, he subsequently became the youngest male gold medal winner too at these 2013 WC. In the individual floor event final, Shirai secured his first world title with a “historic” routine that consisted of 22¼ twists and a 7.4 D-score—highest among the finalists. Shirai’s passes: 1) RO–BH–3½–punch double full, 2) front full–punch Shirai 2, 3) RO–whip back–punch triple full, 4) RO–BH–2½–punch 2½, 5) RO–side flip full, plus 6) RO–BH–Shirai. Compatriot Kōhei Uchimura captured the bronze with a total score of 15.500, and highest execution score (E-score) of 9.100 in the final. Posting a 16.000 total score, Shirai’s 0.4 victory margin over American silver medallist Jacob Dalton, who totalled a 15.600 score, was widest among top individual finalist pairs. Due to Shirai’s demonstrated clean execution of this extremely difficult routine in qualifying, it gave American gold-medallist-turned-commentator Tim Daggett enough confidence to declare on live TV that “there is no way Shirai doesn’t win this” right before Shirai started his final routine, which Shirai twisted his way to a gold medal.

In the individual vault event final, Shirai’s was given a 0.1 point penalty on the first vault for stepping out-of-bounds, finishing him fourth (15.133) place instead of tying for third highest combined score. The two skills Shirai completed were the Shirai (or Shirai-Kim) and Driggs (Tsukahara 2½ twist—originated by Abel Driggs Santos of Cuba in the 2000s), and they had D-score values of 6.0 and 5.6 respectively in the FIG’s then most recent 2013–2016 CoP for MAG. These vaulting numbers were separately 15.266 and 14.900. The defending 2011 world titlist and 2012 Olympic champion on vault, Yang Hak Seon of South Korea (15.533), had captured the gold medal with Steven Legendre of the United States (15.249) and Kristian Thomas of Great Britain (15.233) managing to secure the respective silver and bronze medals.

2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Nanning, China

In October 2014, Shirai competed at the 2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Nanning, China. In the team event final, he contributed solid scores to two events, floor and vault, helping team Japan win silver with a final score of 273.269 behind team China with 273.369—just 0.1 short of tie for gold (e.g. one small step). Shirai had the second highest numbers on both events in the team final with scores of 15.766 on floor behind the 15.900 posted by Jacob Dalton of the United States, who Shirai had relegated into second place in the individual floor event final the year before, plus 15.400 on vault behind the 15.566 posted by Sérgio Sasaki of Brazil.

In the individual event finals, Shirai qualified again for floor exercise and vault. After qualifying first on a familiar routine with a D-score of 7.4 for floor exercise, he was not able to defend his title, capturing silver instead with a final score of 15.733. Shirai was said to be working on improving his routine’s E-score mark after a technical error, stepping out-of-bounds on his third pass, cost him a 0.1 point penalty from the overall score and was enough to lose him the gold—finishing second and behind the surprised Denis Ablyazin of Russia (15.750), who himself took bronze on floor with a top 7.1 difficulty and longer routine at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Despite expectations of him defending his world floor title, some have also duly noted that even with far greater D-scores comparatively, Shirai’s routines consisted of compositions derived only from “single somersault” (one revolution) skills until then, which was quite uncommon and also limiting, made harder entirely by completing them before, and/or after in combination with a number of different twisting/bounding elements. In addition to the anticipation of what else we could expect of Shirai in the not-very-distant future, British commentary has reported that he was working towards the ability to complete a quintuple-twisting (straight back) somersault soon.

In the individual vault event final, Shirai finished in fourth place again with an average combined score of 15.062 despite having one of the two top E-scores (9.466) in the final, but he unfortunately had a comparatively weak second vault with a D-score of only 5.6, which was the only vault that final scoring below 6.0 and significantly lower than all of his other vaults executed in that final, and ended any chance of him seriously challenging his rivals. In contrast, the eventual gold medallist had a 6.4 difficulty value on both of his vaults, which resulted in a 0.8 point deficit just on Shirai’s second vault alone right from the beginning even before the event final started. Ri Se Gwang of North Korea (15.416) won the gold, and Igor Radivilov of Ukraine (15.333) and Jacob Dalton of the United States (15.199) secured silver and bronze. South Korea’s top-qualifying two-time defending champion, Yang Hak Seon, placed seventh as he sat on both final vaults where they had the top D-score of 6.4—the then new Yang Hak Seon 2 (Tsukahara 3½ twist) and Yang Hak Seon (front handspring triple full). Winner Ri competed both of his 6.4 difficulty vaults too, the Ri Se Gwang (full-twisting double Tsukahara) and Ri Se Gwang 2 (front handspring double piked with half turn, or more commonly aka the “Drăgulescu piked” in practice).

2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow, Scotland

In October 2015, Shirai participated in the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. In the team event final, he contributed scores on the same two apparatuses again, floor exercise and vault, and helped team Japan secure the gold medal this year with a total combined score of 270.818, outscoring the silver medal team from Great Britain by nearly half a point. Shirai’s score of 16.325 on floor exercise in this final was the highest among all athletes, and its only score posted above 16 with the second highest at over half a point lower. His vault score of 15.533 was also the team event final's second highest posted on that apparatus behind the 15.700 posted by Russia’s Denis Ablyazin, the athlete who also narrowly defeated Shirai for the gold medal in the 2014 individual floor exercise event final.

Shirai also made the individual floor and vault event finals again. On October 31, 2015, Shirai secured his second world floor title. In the individual floor event final, he successfully performed another extremely difficult routine and scored a 16.233—ahead of Briton Max Whitlock and Rayderley Zapata of Spain. Shirai’s victory margin from Whitlock in the final was 0.667, the widest among the men’s finals across these 2015 WC, outscoring even that gold-medal-performance’s winning margin Shirai achieved in the 2013 individual floor event final. His latest routine’s more extreme difficulty of 7.6 in start value was again the highest among the finalists. Shirai’s floor routines until then only consisted of “single somersault” (one revolution) elements, but there at this event was when Shirai began showing off the additional abilities to consistently complete “double somersault” (two revolutions) skills like the Ri Jong Song on floor exercise (triple-twisting double back [tucked] somersault—originated by Ri Jong Song of North Korea in the 2000s) with a high difficulty value of G (0.7), the second highest possible D-score that could be assigned then to any individual skill in artistic gymnastics except on vault, as his floor routine’s second pass. So, Shirai needed to change the existing second pass of “front full twist–punch Shirai 2” to come third and eliminate his routine’s original third pass of “RO–whip back–punch triple twist” entirely. The order of all passes—1) RO–BH–3½ twist–punch double full, 2) RO–BH–Ri Jong Song, 3) front full twist–punch Shirai 2, 4) RO–BH–2½ twist–punch 2½ twist, 5) RO–side somersault full twist, and 6) RO–BH–Shirai to end.

In the individual vault event final, Shirai placed seventh with the average combined score of 14.516. He had posted competitive E-scores among the finalists, but both Shirai’s vaults had the lower D-scores of 5.6 and 5.2 for 2015, lacking then the higher numbers necessary to achieve the bigger average combined score needed and realistically challenge the world’s top vaulters for a spot on the podium when every other vault completed in the individual final had a score of 6.0 in difficulty or above. One detail to note here of Shirai’s worst vault final result since his debut at the 2013 WC—he started both his two planned vaults normally, but due to his poor landing position of the “Yurchenko” first vault, Shirai or Shirai-Kim (3 twists) with 6.0 difficulty, judges downgraded it to the Shewfelt or Amanar (2½ twists) with 5.6 difficulty for incomplete twisting, and it resulted in Shirai’s team electing to simplify his “Tsukahara” next/second vault from the Driggs (2½ twists) with 5.6 difficulty to Akopian (2 twists—originated by Artur Akopian of the former Soviet Union at the WC earlier in the 1980s) with 5.2 difficulty just as Shirai’s chances of medalling at this point of the competition had then suddenly become mathematically extremely unlikely in an instant, effectively due to the initial difficulty loss of 0.4 on his higher-scoring vault. His numbers of 5.6 and 5.2 also happen to correspond now perfectly to this current quad’s actual revised scores in the Shirai or Shirai-Kim, and Driggs respectively. Ri Se Gwang of North Korea (15.450) defended his gold, Romania’s Marian Drăgulescu (15.400) won silver, and American Donnell Whittenburg (15.350) won bronze.

2015 Toyota International Gymnastics Competition in Toyota City, Japan

On December 12–13, 2015, Shirai—representing previously his childhood home club, Tsurumi Junior Gymnastics Club, he currently competes out of his university as new home club Nippon Sport Science University (NSSU)—competed at the lower-profile but respectable 2015 Toyota International Gymnastics Competition in Toyota City, Japan. Even though not an FIG-organised international competition, they had a good pool of gymnasts on their roster, and were of some importance because he had successfully completed his third original skill, one of the currently two most difficult skills on floor in MAG. Via petition, the skill has since taken Shirai’s name, and been officially named the Shirai 3 on floor. In practice, that is the Ri Jong Song in layout on floor, triple-twisting double layout, the I (0.9) second “double somersault” (two revolutions) skill incorporated into the existing floor routines after that after he swapped the Shirai 3 into starting position for his first pass with the Ri Jong Song to stay as his second pass executed immediately after. The rest of his floor routine has been adjusted accordingly too, to reflect the increased difficulty in this change. All passes: 1) RO–BH–Shirai 3, 2) RO–BH–Ri Jong Song, 3) RO–BH–2½–punch 2½, 4) front full–punch Shirai 2, 5) RO–BH–3½–punch full, and 6) RO–BH–Shirai.

At this individual-apparatus-only competition, Shirai had won the gold in the individual floor and vault event finals, achieving scores of 15.700 and 15.225 respectively. Due to his current top D-score nature of the Shirai 3 on floor, he also achieved a very rare honour of sharing with Andreas Bretschneider of Germany, Valeri Liukin of the former Soviet Union, and Donnell Whittenburg of the United States to own one, until just quite recently, of only four longstanding most difficult and highest-scoring competition-verified original skills in all of MAG to receive the previous official top score assignment of H (0.8) difficulty from the FIG. At present, Bretschneider, Liukin and Whittenburg successfully completed the Bretschneider on high bar (or Kovac double twist), Liukin on floor (or triple tucked back) and Whittenburg on rings (or triple piked back dismount) respectively. The FIG had once highly expected Bretschneider to progress his very own skill into the layout position—already named it the Bretschneider 2 on high bar, suggesting it could be given MAG’s new top difficulty of I (0.9) to mirror WAG’s only existing top level floor skill—but he could not do so. This WAG’s only top I (0.9) level skill then—the Moors on floor, or double-twisting double back layout, by Victoria Moors of Canada, who originated it at the 2013 WC.

2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

On August 6, 2016, at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, team Japan qualified first to the team all-around event final, following their success at the 2015 WC. They then solidified their victory two days later at the Rio Olympic Arena with a final combined score of 274.094. Shirai contributed to the gold medal win in the team event final with scores of 16.133 and 15.633 on floor and vault. He did not compete in more individual finals on other apparatuses though at these Olympics. This team from Japan ended up winning their gold medals ahead of teams from Russia and China—they finished with respective score totals of 271.453 and 271.122.

Shirai was in good competition form physically, and qualified for the individual floor exercise and vault finals. Being twice and current world champion on floor, he was the overwhelming favourite to win gold, but only managed to finish a disappointing fourth, scoring a 15.366, after having trouble on landings in three out of six passes. Max Whitlock of Great Britain (15.633), the gymnast who Shirai had readily beaten only a year ago in the individual floor final at the 2015 WC by a wide score margin, won the gold medal, and Diego Hypólito (15.533) and Arthur Mariano (15.433)—both from host country of Brazil—captured the silver and bronze medals respectively. In the individual vault event final the day after, Shirai posted an average combined total of 15.449 (15.833 and 15.066 on each respective vault—the former becoming the highest-scoring vault of that final), and tied the legendary Marian Drăgulescu of Romania for the third highest numeric score in the event final. The tie-breaker had worked in Shirai’s favour this time, to win him the bronze medal, edging out Drăgulescu, who had ended up with the identical average combined score too but missed achieving this all-important deciding factor for breaking a tie then, of a medal—it was the single highest numeric E-score on any vault that had already been executed. With the defending Olympic champion, South Korea’s Yang Hak Seon, out injured, North Korea’s Ri Se Gwang (15.691), whose artistic gymnastics team was banned from competition in 2012 amidst continual age falsification accusations with their female athletes, won gold, and Russia’s Denis Ablyazin (15.516) defended the silver.

In Rio, Shirai also successfully originated a second vault, now officially named the Shirai 2 (3½-twisting Yurchenko), which was assigned the second highest D-score of 6.4 in the FIG’s existing 2013–2016 CoP with the top 7.0 difficulty assessed in advance for the Radivilov (front handspring triple [tucked] somersault) originated by the 2012 Olympic vault bronze medallist, specialist Igor Radivilov of Ukraine. Naming credit was given despite him sitting it down in the individual vault final, only for it to be totally banned from competition and removed from the next CoP due to a high risk of injury when competing/training the skill. Thus, Shirai now shares honour of owning at least one of only five official top 6.0 difficulty skills named after them with the 2012 and 2016 Olympic vault champions, Yang and Ri, both owning two each. All vaults again with the top difficulty of 6.0 in their relevant 2017–2020 CoP are the Shirai 2, Yang Hak Seon, Yang Hak Seon 2, Ri Se Gwang and Ri Se Gwang 2. In two out of the aforementioned five most difficult vaults, the former two—the Shirai 2 plus Yang Hak Seon—only their originators have ever successfully completed them at a major competition. Since Shirai originated the Shirai 2 on vault in the individual event finals, he had no plans soon to compete it again after these Olympics.

2017 Melbourne World Cup in Melbourne, Australia

On February 22–25, 2017, Shirai—still riding on some of that momentum from his preparation for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro—competed abroad in Melbourne, Australia, at the 2017 Melbourne World Cup, an individual apparatus-only competition, with an expanded programme including more events, which added the horizontal bar (HB), still rings (SR) plus parallel bars (PB) to his seasoned routines/skills on floor and vault. In still rings qualifications, he placed tenth in last place with a low E-score—reduced combined total—did not qualify for the event final. In parallel bars qualifications, Shirai placed third, and thus qualified for this event final. Despite falling in his routine during the horizontal bar qualifications, Shirai finished in fourth place due to errors made by his rivals, and also ended up in its event final. In both floor and vault qualifications, he had finished both on top, qualifying him for two extra individual finals. In the individual parallel bars event final, he won a silver medal by getting the second highest E-score of 8.433 with a combined score of 14.433. A Chinese gymnast, Zou Jingyuan (15.166), won the gold medal while Ferhat Arican of Turkey (13.566) captured the bronze medal. In the individual horizontal bar event final, Shirai managed to secure the gold medal with the combined score of 13.933, thanks to another of his second highest E-scores of 8.333, plus more mistakes made by other competitors in this final. Mitchell Morgans of Australia (13.400), and another one of Shirai’s fellow Japanese Yusuke Saito (13.333) won the silver and bronze medals respectively. In this individual floor event final, Shirai easily won the gold with his extreme score of 14.700 largely because of his routine’s highest score number of 7.2 in difficulty—the second highest only 6.5 among all the finalists. Mu Jile of China (14.466) captured the silver, and Arican (14.033) won his second bronze down under. Lastly, in the final of their individual vault event, Shirai won the second gold medal of the competition with the average combined score of 14.916 because of the two highest execution numbers of 9.500 and 9.533 he posted in this event final. Christopher Remkes of Australia (14.883) won the silver medal with another of Shirai’s countryman Wataru Tanigawa (14.566) securing the bronze medal.

Like in Toyota City, that early lower-profile FIG World Cup competition also holds some significance because in Melbourne, Shirai had successfully completed still yet one more original element—his sixth in total—to then be officially named the Shirai 3 on vault automatically. Thus, he currently has more skills bearing his name than any other male gymnast in history, and second only to Svetlana Khorkina of Russia, who holds the all-time record of having nine original skills adopt her name across all four apparatuses in WAG. The Shirai 3 on vault—aka “full on–double full off” in practice—was given a D-score of 5.4 in the 2017–2020 quad. The vault technically has a RO–full-twisting BH (aka Scherbo) approach onto the vaulting platform, and then into layout somersault with double twist off it. Yet to be executed, the next skill in that progression—RO–full-twisting BH onto vault into 2½ twist off it, or “full on–2½ off”—was already assessed in advance, giving it a difficulty number of 5.8, which most think it to be too low since the Li Xiao Peng on vault (or aka “½ on–2½ off” in practice—originated by the great Chinese gymnast Li Xiao Peng in the 2000s) has also long received a 5.8 difficulty equivalent. “Full on–2½ off” by nature has more twists, and thus is more complex/difficult to compete—should have a higher D-score.

2017 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Montreal, Canada

In October 2017, Shirai showed he retained more of the Olympic form when he competed at the 2017 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Montreal, Canada. No team events were held, as it is customary since 2005 at the WC in the year right after the Olympics. Shirai would eventually win three medals on a full competition programme that included owning a routine on his last holdout event, pommel horse (PH). He then became eligible for the individual all-around (AA) event in Montreal, winning the first world AA medal (bronze) behind Xiao Ruoteng (86.933) and Lin Chaopan (86.488), both of China. Shirai’s combined total of 86.431 has 15.733 on floor, 13.433 on pommel horse, 13.666 on still rings, 15.000 on vault, 14.633 on parallel bars, and 13.966 on high bar. With the top numbers on floor and vault among AA finalists, Shirai had also easily defended the individual world floor title from two years ago when the WC were last held with a final score of 15.633, out-tumbling the silver medallist, Artem Dolgopyat of Israel—just managing a score of 14.533—by over a point. Shirai’s final unassailable victory margin of 1.1 became their widest one yet at the WC, outdistancing himself from his rivals even more than the 2015 performance did. His passes stayed consistent after originating the Shirai 3 on floor.

On vault, Shirai qualified for the individual event final in second with an average combined score of 14.949 but subsequently won his first world vault title by putting up the highest average combined score of 14.900, 15.200 and 14.600 for the first and second numbers respectively, in an exciting and close last round of competition. Shirai did manage to win with the absolute slimmest of victory margin by just 0.001 after the 2012 Olympic bronze medallist on vault, event specialist Igor Radivilov of Ukraine, came up short and finished with the closest possible second highest average combined score of 14.899. Shirai did also get a little help when the top qualifier and 2012 Olympic champion on vault, South Korea’s Yang Hak Seon, withdrew with a hamstring injury after outscoring Shirai by a significant margin of 0.334 with the average combined score of 15.283 in qualifying, which was three times more than the margin of any two other qualifiers. These score differences were only about 0.1.

It is also worth noting that Shirai has executed two identical vaults as he has done since this event debut at the 2013 WC on every individual vault event, even though he has successfully completed more difficult and higher-scoring vaults in competition—specifically the Shirai 2 and Shirai 3 with the former heavily contributing to his bronze medal win at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and latter slightly less his gold in the individual vault event final at the 2017 Melbourne World Cup. Like D-scores of other selected vaults across the board, the ones for the Shirai 2 and Shirai 3 were also adjusted to 5.6 and 5.2 respectively in this 2017–2020 quad. Also, Hidetaka Miyachi of Japan took advantage of injuries on German Andreas Bretschneider, who was beaten to the punch here in 2017, originating the first double-twisting layout Kovac, or now officially named the Miyachi on high bar—only skill then given the new top level I (0.9) D-score value, and created in advance specially for it by the FIG—successfully first on home soil at the All-Japan Apparatus Championships in Takasaki, Japan, before he petitioned governing body to officially verify skill completion and name adoption. I (0.9), the new top D-score, was created then to assist an existing MAG scoring system more accurately reflect the very extreme D-score of the Miyachi on high bar, which was verified here at these 2017 WC then—as a result, it did also update the MAG scoring system levels again mirror WAG.

2018 American Cup in Hoffman Estates, United States–2018 Tokyo World Cup and NHK Trophy in Tokyo, Japan

On March 3, 2018, Shirai started this competition season for 2018 when he accepted the invitation to participate in the American Cup FIG Individual All-Around World Cup 2018 or 2018 American Cup in Hoffman Estates (suburb of Chicago), United States. In the individual AA-only competition, he placed sixth, achieving a combined total of 81.498 despite posting top floor and vault scores, the signature apparatuses, of 15.066 and 14.966 respectively, and second highest tying Yul Moldauer of the United States on parallel bars with 14.500 behind leader Petro Pakhniuk of Ukraine with 14.933. Each of Shirai’s scores, in particular on pommel horse, was relatively weaker when compared to all other finalists. Hovering sufficiently lower, Shirai’s numbers on each of the apparatuses were a 11.100 on pommel horse (lowest on this apparatus with the top score posted nearly three full points higher), 13.700 on still rings, and 12.166 on the horizonal bar. As defending and eventual champion of this competition, Moldauer scored an 85.964, outscoring Shirai by a fair margin of almost 4½ points because Moldauer was able to achieve one of the top three scores on every apparatus—the highest scorer on still rings, third highest on vault, tie for the second highest on parallel bars, plus second highest on his remaining apparatuses.

On April 14, 2018, Shirai participated in this last spring FIG-sanctioned World Cup competition with home advantage at the FIG Individual All-Around World Cup 2018 or 2018 Tokyo World Cup in Tokyo, Japan. In this group of competing gymnasts at different experience levels from many countries across several world continents of Europe, Asia and the Americas, Shirai won gold on the individual all-around event, his very first all-around gold medal at an FIG competition with a combined score of 86.064. Scores from each apparatus were 15.200 on floor, 13.533 on pommel horse, 13.766 on still rings, 14.966 on vault, 14.466 on parallel bars, and 14.133 on the horizonal bars. Among his results, Shirai posted one of the top three scores on all of his apparatuses with the highest numbers on floor, pommel horse and vault, plus second highest on parallel bars and the horizontal bar behind the values of 14.533 posted by Russia’s Artur Dalaloyan on parallel bars and 14.500 by Sam Mikulak of the United States on the horizontal bar, plus third highest too on rings behind those scores of 14.366 and 14.300 posted by Dalaloyan and Wataru Tanigawa of Japan. In the end, familiar efforts by Tanigawa and Mikulak had managed to capture the silver and bronze medals too with respective combined scores of 84.399 and 84.098.

On May 19–20, 2018, Shirai participated in the lower-profile non-FIG individual all-around-only event, also at home—mainly to help prepare local Japanese gymnasts from gymnastics clubs and universities across the country—at the 2018 NHK Trophy in Tokyo, Japan. Although not an FIG competition, the total number participating could far exceed even bigger FIG ones. All AA finalists finishing in the top 30 at the Japanese nationals were automatically invited. It needed to be held over two days as the total number of entries to compete were in excess of 60—instead of the usual 8 as a rule in most other finals. Shirai did end up securing a silver medal with his combined score of 257.895, including the floor’s top score of 15.433, and third highest of 14.833 on vault, just behind Takumi Sato—only competed on floor, still rings and vault—and vault specialist Hidenobu Yonekura—only competed on his specialty apparatus. For Shirai’s other apparatuses, those scores were 13.600 on pommel horse, 13.366 on still rings, 14.433 on parallel bars, and 14.066 on the horizontal bar respectively. Gold medal went to his legendary friend, Kōhei Uchimura, who had come from behind to win with his combined score of 258.629—it would include the top score of 14.966 on the horizontal bar, and second highest of 14.633 on floor.

2018 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Doha, Qatar

On October 25–November 3, 2018, Shirai participated in the 2018 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Doha, Qatar (the FIG’s first worlds in the middle east). Although he lost some form in competition and was thus less successful this year than he was in 2017, his limited preparation still got him one silver and two bronzes. Shirai contributed to the bronze medal win for the Japanese team event on three apparatuses—floor exercise, vault and the horizontal bar where he scored a 14.933, 14.966 and 13.966 respectively. Shirai qualified for the individual finals too on the all-around, floor exercise and vault. During the individual all-around final, Shirai was unable to replicate a comparable level of success as his 2017 bronze medal win, and he finally managed to only place seventh from a total combined score of 84.531.

In the individual floor exercise and vault event finals, Shirai was likewise unable to defend the 2017 gold medals he won in them, and had to respectively settle for the silver and bronze medals instead. In the individual floor exercise event final, he scored a 14.866 behind a much-improved, and 2018’s individual all-around event gold medallist Artur Dalaloyan of Russia, who marginally outscored Shirai with a 14.900 in a cleanly executed routine. Shirai’s floor routine’s D-score of 6.8 was a bit lower than usual, though still higher than Dalaloyan’s 6.2, but Dalaloyan was able to post a sufficiently high E-score too of 8.700 to Shirai’s 8.066, and overtake Shirai in the final combined total. Known mostly for his uncanny abilities as a “twister”, Shirai regularly performed floor routines with D-scores above 7.0, using almost only twisting skills or combinations. In the individual vault event final, Shirai scored a lower combined average of 14.675 because of the lower D-score values assigned to all vaults he completed, particularly the second, behind eventual silver medallist Dalaloyan (14.883), plus gold medallist Ri Se Gwang of North Korea (14.933), who is the 2016 Olympic vault champion. Both of Shirai’s vaults had lower D-scores then by good significance (5.6 and 5.2) if compared to 2018’s gold-medal-winning duo of 6.0 each.

It may be appropriate to point out that Shirai did complete a substantially simplified routine, at times was even seemingly assembled in a rush, for his standards in the individual floor exercise event final. D-scores of Shirai’s floor routines had always consistently valued around 7.4 in the past, but at this event, it was decreased to 6.8. Although this D-score was still the highest among all finalists, the opening loss of about 0.6 from his routine's combined total was sufficient to effectively lose the gold, but won him silver instead this year since Dalaloyan, the eventual winner—whose routine in comparison had a lower D-score of 6.2—did outscore Shirai in execution, even if just barely, and only by 0.034 in the end. The routine of his did not particularly feel as well organised as his previous ones. Shirai’s passes were 1) RO–BH–Ri Jong Song, 2) front full twist–punch Shirai 2, 3) RO–BH–1½ twist–punch 1½ twist, 4) RO–BH–Shirai, 5) RO–BH–3½ twist–punch full twist, and 6) RO–BH–triple full. It is also worth noting again that Shirai always competed his two same exact vaults—first a “Yurchenko”–then forward-entry “Tsukahara”—in the individual vault event finals at all of the FIG's major competitions but one in 2013–2018 (WC but not 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where he won the bronze after advancing to the Shirai 2 on vault, or 3½-twisting Yurchenko, for his backward-entry skill), competing better generally from one year to his next. Although his vaults’ D-scores have since been lowered from 6.0 and 5.6 (2013–2015) in the last 2013–2016 quad to 5.6 and 5.2 (2017–2018) in the FIG’s next 2017–2020 CoP, he continued to improve his standings in the individual vault finals every year. In 2013–2015, Shirai placed fourth, fourth and seventh, and in 2017–2018, he won gold and bronze respectively.

2019 Tokyo World Cup and All-Japan All-Around Championships in Tokyo, Japan

On April 7, 2019, Shirai began his season competing at the FIG Individual All-Around World Cup 2019 or 2019 Tokyo World Cup in Tokyo, Japan. Like in 2018, Shirai was supposed to start competition at the 2019 American Cup, but withdrew to treat a left ankle injury, which he sustained about a week before he started travelling. Due to the injury, Shirai simplified certain skills in his routines for the competition here in Tokyo, which became especially noticeable when he performed on floor—his strongest signature event—as he recycled, using portions of his past routines. Changes included starting his floor routine with a RO–BH–3½ twist–punch double twist opening pass instead of the Shirai 3, one of two hardest floor skills in MAG, and ending with only a triple twist last pass instead of the Shirai, his infamous quad twist. In the end, Shirai failed to defend his gold medal from last year, but managed to capture bronze with the combined score of 82.964, despite still recovering from injury. The 2018 bronze medallist, Sam Mikulak of the United States (86.599), improved his standings, and won gold. Japan’s Wataru Tanigawa (85.665) defended his silver. Event commentator Tim Daggett opined Shirai to be “man, myth, legend—capable of doing...many things...people thought were...literally impossible” in gymnastics.

On April 26–28, 2019, Shirai competed at the 2019 All-Japan AA Championships, one of two closely held AA-only events in Chofu, Tokyo, Japan. Shirai had qualified for event finals in 22nd place, finishing in 30th. Shirai also managed only one score in the top three on any apparatus, second highest on floor (14.533) behind Kazuki Minami (14.633), who just competed on floor. This event’s respective gold, silver and bronze medallists—Kakeru Tanigawa with a combined score of 84.699, Kazuma Kaya with a combined score of 84.664, and Kazuyuki Takeda with a combined score of 84.498—had Tanigawa managing the second highest score for pommel horse while Takeda had achieved the third highest for still rings too. After assessing their winning scores, it shows there is much to be desired in being able to post numbers that are above average for every apparatus. Shirai’s remaining scores in that final—12.900 on pommel horse, 12.800 on still rings, 14.166 on vault, 13.733 on parallel bars, 11.300 on the horizontal bar, and 79.432 for the total AA combined score. Injury had persisted to adversely affect the recent competition performances, and thus reflected in the results. Event number differences between top apparatus scores and Shirai’s were particularly wide on pommel horse, still rings and the horizontal bar.

2019 NHK Trophy in Chofu and All-Japan Apparatus Championships in Takasaki, Japan

On May 18–19, 2019, Shirai competed at the 2019 NHK Trophy, also in Chofu, Tokyo, Japan—repeating his 2018 participation at this AA-only event. Due to lingering injury issues with the left ankle, he was unable to perform as well in the competition in comparison to most others, which would also include his performance here last year. Shirai placed 23rd with a 243.794 combined score. He was unable to achieve a top three score on any of the apparatuses, not even on his signatures of floor or vault. Shirai’s scores on each respective apparatus were 14.500 on floor, 12.533 on pommel horse, 12.800 on still rings, 14.566 on vault, 14.066 on parallel bars, and 13.066 on high bar. Kakeru Tanigawa (254.363), Wataru Tanigawa (254.128) and Kazuma Kaya (254.126), who won their gold, silver and bronze, were unable too to score, if at all, more than only one of the top three numbers on any apparatus, which may also indicate that none of their 2019 gymnasts was able to do particularly well this year at this competition—Kakeru Tanigawa was only able to score the second highest number (14.733) on floor, Wataru Tanigawa was also just able to make the third highest (14.866) on vault, and just like Shirai, Kazuma Kaya was likewise not able to post a top three number on any one of the apparatuses at this event too.

On June 21–23, 2019, Shirai competed at the 2019 All-Japan Apparatus Championships in Takasaki, Japan, hoping he would do well enough to secure a spot on the Japanese national team, and compete at the 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. It was ultimately not meant to be his year though. Shirai had qualified into the individual event finals specifically on floor exercise, vault and the horizontal bar in second, fourth and sixth respectively. In these finals, he had finished in third (14.900), fifth (14.433) and eighth (11.200) place, respectively for each of these three apparatuses too. Finishing ahead of Shirai on floor exercise were Kazuki Minami with a total score of 15.033, and Naoto Hayasaka with a total score of 15.000. Their top finisher on vault was Keitoro Okubo, posting the average combined score of 15.233, and the winner of the horizontal bar was Hirohito Kahama with a total score of 14.766. Shirai’s floor D-score numbers had remained on top among all the finalists. However, his execution needed some additional work, and could have been cleaner, which was thus reflected on the routine’s E-score. Shirai’s vault D-score values were comparatively lesser—only one with the lowest 5.2—and needed higher base numbers before he could seriously challenge the top vaulters.

2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany

For the first time since Shirai’s international debut at the WC in 2013, he had failed to qualify onto the Japanese national artistic gymnastics team, and compete at the 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, which was held on October 4–13, 2019. Shirai has been reportedly slowed in most of the 2019 season by a very stubborn injury to the left ankle, and thus unable to perform/compete his best at the 2019 All-Japan Apparatus Championships—results there and at the 2019 NHK Trophy determined gymnasts’ eligibility to join team Japan at the 2019 WC. Shirai’s best chance was to secure one of two spots available for individual event specialists—namely on his two signature apparatuses of floor exercise and vault. However, he was just able to place third on floor exercise, plus fifth on vault to miss qualifying for these 2019 WC. As a result, Shirai could not defend his 2018 team bronze, and individual floor silver and vault bronze. As he was not the only high profile absentee, Japan sent a fairly green team with the top male and female athletes, Kōhei Uchimura and Mai Murakami, absent too due to existing injuries as well. Uchimura was then still struggling and attempting a return to past winning form since he tore his, also left ankle, ligaments in the AA vault’s qualifying at the 2017 WC.

Without Japan’s full team in Stuttgart, the men’s competition was dominated mostly by gymnasts from Russia or other former Soviet states with an odd individual final being won by gymnasts from another country. The 2018 winner of their men's individual AA event was Artur Dalaloyan of Russia, who finished second in 2019 behind countryman Nikita Nagornyy on both this individual AA event, and the individual vault event too. However, it was very different in the women’s competition, which was American-dominated and led by Simone Biles. Making history again here and winning big, Biles competed a skill with first ever J (10.0) difficulty in artistic gymnastics. The Biles 2 on floor, or triple-twisting double back (tucked) somersault—the only top J (10.0) difficulty skill then—was successfully executed by Biles at the 2019 WC. She originated another skill here too—now the Biles on balance beam, or double-twisting double back dismount, with an H (0.8) difficulty, which most think is too low. Biles defended four golds—one team and three individuals (AA, floor and vault)—here, and added one new gold on the individual balance beam event. Mai Murakami was ineligible to defend the silver and bronze medals she won here on 2018’s individual AA and vault events after losing her appeal for missing the 2019 NHK Trophy.

Competitive history

With floor and vault, Shirai has also made other apparatuses’ remaining individual finals, but yet to do it at the majors. His results at the WC and Olympics since 2013:

Year	Event	Team	All-Around	Floor Exercise	Pommel Horse	Still Rings	Vault	Parallel Bars	Horizontal Bar
2013
	World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, Belgium	—					4
2014
	World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Nanning, China						4
2015
	World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow, Scotland						7
2016
	Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil			4
2017
	World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Montreal, Canada	—
2018
	World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Doha, Qatar		7
2019
	World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany	Did not qualify to compete due to injury
2020
	Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan
2021
	World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark	—

Eponymous skills

Difficulty ranges on vault plus all other events are 1.6–6.4 plus A (0.1)–J (10.0)—only one new 2019 WAG skill, the Biles on floor, given then the top J (10.0) D-score.

Apparatus	Name(s)	Description	Difficulty	Competition Achieved
Floor	Shirai or Shirai-Nguyen	backward quadruple-twisting (back) layout somersault	F (0.6)	2013 World Championships in Antwerp
Floor	Shirai 2	forward triple-twisting (front) layout somersault	F (0.6)	2013 World Championships in Antwerp
Floor	Shirai 3	backward triple-twisting double (back) layout somersault	H (0.8)	2015 Toyota International Gymnastics Competition in Toyota City
Vault	Shirai or Shirai-Kim	RO–BH (Yurchenko) on into (back layout) triple twist off, or triple-twisting Yurchenko (TTY)	5.6	2013 World Championships in Antwerp
Vault	Shirai 2	RO–BH (Yurchenko) on into 3½-twisting (back) layout off, or 3½-twisting Yurchenko	6.0	2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro
Vault	Shirai 3	RO–full-twisting BH (Scherbo) on into double-twisting layout off, or “full on–double full off”	5.4	2017 Melbourne World Cup in Melbourne

Shirai has six original skills to have since officially taken his name. D-score values listed above are valid in the 2017–2020 quad, according to the FIG’s CoP for MAG. Although Shirai did find some success on the individual AA event since 2017, he is still viewed as more of a specialist on floor and vault where all his original skills lie. The naming of Shirai’s original skills were mostly automatic as all were successfully completed at events by the FIG—the Olympics, WC or World Cup series—except for the Shirai 3 on floor, which had to be petitioned in an application to the FIG as it was not successfully executed at an event by the FIG, and could thus officially be given the name of its originator(s) only via the petition process. Usually, only last or family names are used in naming of original skills, especially when it involves less commonly more than one name. However, if family name is not customarily listed at the end—such as with Chinese and Korean names—then full name in customary order shall be used instead. In half of these original skills above, Shirai remains the one gymnast to have even ever attempted them, let alone successfully completed in competition while for the rest of them, he is still presently one of only a handful of active gymnasts in the world who could compete them at a consistently high level.

Shirai's talent in gymnastics was evident very early on, as demonstrated by his impressive list of eponymous skills—namely in their advanced nature when combining various twisting/bounding skills. His enormous potential in a sport, where its most difficult skills become increasingly harder to advance, can be shown by example—it took vault in artistic gymnastics for both men and women a relatively long 13 years (2000–2013), a time when the gymnastics world had begun theorising whether 2½ twists may be the limit for human ability to only manage up to the maximum number of 2½ twists on “Yurchenko” skills (all vaults with RO–BH entry) in competition, to add on only ½ a twist more, advancing on vault, the Shewfelt or Amanar (Yurchenko 2½ twist—originated by Kyle Shewfelt of Canada for MAG and Simona Amânar of Romania for WAG, both at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney) to Shirai or Shirai-Kim (Yurchenko triple twist or TTY—again successfully and jointly originated by both Shirai and South Korea's Kim Hee Hoon at the 2013 WC). Shirai then needed just an extra 3 years (2013–2016) to further progress his very own skill with yet ½ a twist more added on to it, successfully completing the very first 3½-twisting Yurchenko, or now Shirai 2 on vault, at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Miscellaneous

In October 2017, after the 2017 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Montreal, Canada, a social media video showed Shirai completing well on floor the triple Y-turn, now officially called the Mustafina on floor exercise, after gymnast Aliya Mustafina of Russia with E (0.5) difficulty in WAG's 2017–2020 CoP. He was again subsequently shown completing additional skills on more WAG apparatuses, such as executing a partial routine on uneven bars, also at a comparatively high level. In December 2018, another clip was shared of Shirai arguably better executing countrywoman Mai Murakami’s entire competitive floor routine to music in comparison, especially on the most difficult skills—some even unscored for MAG—such as the Gomez on floor exercise, or quadruple turn with free leg below horizontal, by Elena Gómez of Spain, who originated this skill at the 2002 WC, and it is a skill that the FIG has also assigned a difficulty value of E (0.5) in the 2017–2020 CoP for WAG.

External links

• Kenzo Shirai at the International Gymnastics Federation
• Shirai (FloorEx)
• Shirai/Kim (Vault)