When Kohei Uchimura snatched his place on the Japanese Olympic team with great difficulty in June, it seemed that Japanese fans across the country sighed in sympathy as one of the world's gymnastics legends.

The man who established absolute dominance over two Olympics, winning both world and Olympic titles from 2009 to 2016 in the all-around competition, is one of the greatest gymnasts of all time.

Five years after the coronation of "King Kohei" in Rio to become the first man in 44 years to win all-around gold in two consecutive Olympics, the 32-year-old booked his place in Tokyo with great difficulty after a playoff on the only device he will compete in, the bar.

Ahhh Kohei Uchimura's 15.7 (6.6, 9.1) high bar!!!

Caught Bretschneider and stuck DDLO!

pic.twitter.com/pBkZjeHx0U

— Kaley (@yang_bo_dudnik) December 13, 2020

"It was very difficult for an old man like me to compete after the new generation," Uchimura said at a news conference after the competition, referring to his teammates who are 10 years younger than him.

"I may not be part of the opposing team in all the equipment, but I hope to contribute to some things given my experience," he added.

An early start

Uchimura was born into a family of gymnasts, where his mother participated in the 2020 Masters Championships at the age of 56, and began training at the age of 3 on a trampoline that his parents bought from the United States.

His last place in his first tournament sparked his appetite for hard work, and a rigorous training regimen that included visualizing his movements via notebook drawings.

"When I was young, I used to feel nervous and isolated sometimes. But when I was in high school I thought I could fly if I tried," Uchimura told the Asahi Shimbun daily.

After moving to Tokyo as a teenager to train, Uchimura joined the national team for the first time in 2007 and was selected to participate in the 2008 Beijing Olympics at the age of 19 to lead the team to silver in all devices, and also won silver in the individual competitions in all devices to achieve his first individual medal out of 7 in the Olympic Games.

During his dominance in gymnastics, he was nicknamed "Super Mora" and was also described as an "Alien", nicknames he always ignored.

Don't forget Kohei Uchimura 6x World AA champion, 2x Olympic AA champion, & the only gymnasts to sweep two entire quads in a row pic.twitter.com/kr4WcLqarC https://t.co/8AqLIjVaaq

— Kaley (@yang_bo_dudnik) July 13, 2021

Instead, Uchimura said it was all about the hours he spent training to perfect his moves, even though he avoided weight training because it could get in the way of his "beauty in motion" path.

Before the 2016 Rio Olympics, Uchimura told Reuters that Japan's focus on perfection was what led it to achieve these medals, and that the degree of difficulty of the movements must be balanced with that, especially against the technically strong Chinese team.

"We're going to raise our level of difficulty a little bit, but I think it's best to emphasize perfection," added Uchimura, who has won six world championships and two Olympic golds in all-around competition.

It worked and both the team and Uchimura got the gold.

After sustaining several injuries in the years since Rio, Uchimura decided to focus on the pull-up competition to secure his place in the Olympics hosted by his country.

After Uchimura failed to reach the final of the 2019 national championship, he told the Yomiuri Shimbun that his high school coach had come to him in a dream.

"An individual medal is worth more than a team," the coach, who died the previous year after a battle with cancer at the age of 51, told Uchimura.

After that, Uchimura decided to focus on the pull-up competition as his shoulder pain subsided.

Despite this, he later said that part of him still wanted to compete in other devices.

After securing his place on the Japanese team, Uchimura admitted to having mixed feelings.

"My level was not really acceptable to me, and when I finished, I thought I would not go to the Olympics. When I was informed of my success, besides my happiness I asked myself: Is this really good?"

"I don't think I deserved the King title after today's performance. I will need to train before the Olympics," he added.