TOKYO -- The athletes have quietly referred to him as "Superman" for years.
They don't talk about beating him. They talk about challenging him one day when they get good enough, or scaring him, or getting him on the run. No one has defeated him in a major international all-around competition since the 2008 Olympic Games, and really, he took himself out of that meet by falling twice on pommel horse in the all-around final -- a youthful mistake that has not been repeated.
Three-time World champion Kohei Uchimura is the best there ever was in men's gymnastics, and remarkably, he's only 22 years old. Uchimura solidified that best-ever status Friday night by walking through a pressure-filled all-around final at home in Japan as though it were the most rudimentary of meets. He was strong, precise and deeply elegant. If there was any doubt left that he is the greatest male gymnast in history, he erased it with his near-perfect performance that thrilled the home crowd.
No man has ever won three World all-around golds, let alone three back to back to back. No man ever had to make gymnastics history in front of a home crowd in a country that has been devastated by earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters and is looking for a symbol of strength and hope. Uchimura's competition was a tour de force that left other athletes shaking their heads -- when they weren't giving him a standing ovation from the gallery.
"I'm in the wrong era," said all-around silver medalist Philipp Boy of Germany, who rocketed from sixth to second in the last rotation with a high bar routine that would have been the toast of the competition had it not been followed by Uchimura's own spectacular performance, which brought the whole arena to its feet for two minutes.
The men's all-around final was punctuated by some stellar performances, like Boy's routine and the high bar set of fourth-place finisher Daniel Purvis of Great Britain. There were also terrific parallel bars from Marcel Nguyen and Danell Leyva. But nobody could outclass Uchimura, who started with a near perfect performance on floor and simply got closer to perfection with each consecutive event.
It's too bad the perfect 10 no longer exists. The age of Uchimura is a golden age in men's gymnastics. Unless you're one of those who has to compete against him.
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