The Japanese gymnast’s final total of 92.365 points gave him the gold by a slender 0.099 margin from Ukraine’s Oleg Verniaiev, as he became the first man to successfully defend the title since countryman Sawao Kato in 1972.
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Coming into the high bar, both Verniaiev’s and Uchimura’s final event of the six-event circuit, Uchimura needed to ace his routine and hope Verniaiev had some blemishes.
“To keep it going for that long is just insane”, summed up Britain’s Max Whitlock, who picked up bronze behind Uchimura and Ukraine’s Oleg Verniaiev.
Unfortunately for Verniaiev, all it took was one teeny-weeny little bobble on his dismount from the horizontal bar to lose to the man he called “the Michael Phelps or Usain Bolt of gymnastics”.
Uchimura also joins Kato on a record three Olympic medals in men’s all-around, after silver in 2008.
“There’s only the tiniest gap, a 0.1 gap”, Uchimura said. “I’m so exhausted right now”, he admitted.
The charismatic Mikulak, on the other hand, said he jumped from 16th-place after the third rotation to a final seventh based on the pick-me-up he got from “slamming” his third can of his herbal energy drink, a business he and two friends started while he was at MI.
However, Uchimura then nailed his vault despite a small hop back on landing, scoring a competition-best 15.566. “For a while, the P&G [Championships] and trials [both in June], I didn’t hit six-for-six, but I came to the grandest of stages and I did it here”.
“I was able to put on a good performance showing the challenging and interesting aspects of gymnastics”.
Brooks made his first Olympics at 29, and this was his first and likely last competition at this level. In it, he gained a new respect for what Uchimura has done. It was an emotional roller coaster through all that. “Since 2009 this title has been mine, but this time was the trickiest for me”.
“To see my name even near the top of the scoreboard was an fantastic honor”.
In the end, all it took was a razor-thin 0.099 of a point to separate triumph and disaster.
“We’re not satisfied with finishing fifth”.
“Competing with a guy who has not given up his title since 2009 is incredible. There were incredible bright spots”.
Mikulak, for all intents and purposes the face of USA men’s gymnastics as the four-time national champion, said he wants to work with young gymnasts to “maximize their potential and not make the same mistakes I have”.
“It wasn’t quite as nerve-wracking as I thought”, he said of Wednesday night. “I felt really close to admitting that it might be really hard, but the final horizontal bar event for me, I was very happy with my performance”.
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“I’m going to find all my silver linings and positive takeaways and I am going to use that to my advantage”.
