In the early morning of August 1, Beijing time, the suspense of the champion of the men's individual all-around final of the Paris Olympics was solved, and although Chinese players Zhang Boheng and Xiao Ruoteng played at a high level, they still lost to Japan's Shinnosuke Oka, and finally won the silver and bronze medals with 86.599 points and 86.364 points respectively, and Shinnosuke Oka won the Olympic gold medal for the first time with 86.832 points.
During the Paris Olympic cycle, Zhang Boheng gradually grew into the leader of the Chinese gymnastics team. Zhang Boheng had been defeated at the last minute before the Tokyo Olympics, but he said that he did not have many regrets at the time, after all, he lacked experience in the competition at that time, and the Olympics were still a somewhat distant goal for him.
2021 was the beginning of Zhang Boheng's talent and strength, and he shone at the World Championships, beating Olympic champion Daiki Hashimoto of Japan in the individual all-around event, making him famous. And that match was also the beginning of a strong dialogue between Zhang Boheng and Daiki Hashimoto in the following years.
At the 2022 World Championships, Zhang Boheng missed the individual all-around gold medal, and he lost to Daiki Hashimoto. Zhang Boheng was in a slump at the time and had a lot of injuries. Therefore, the failure to defend the title is not too surprising. Many people remember that during the World Championships, the team doctor even gave Zhang Boheng bloodletting treatment, hoping to reduce the swelling as soon as possible, but the effect was average. "To be honest, I don't have any regrets, I had several injuries to my feet, waist, shoulders, etc. Later, his leg hit the bar and was very swollen. Zhang Boheng told a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily.
At the 2023 Chengdu Universiade, Zhang Boheng won the gold medal in the men's team and individual all-around. Before the race, Zhang Boheng was especially looking forward to a hard-to-head battle with Daiki Hashimoto, but what he didn't expect was that Daiki Hashimoto suffered a head injury in the pommel horse race and had to retire early. A good show was not staged, which really disappointed Zhang Boheng. But on the field they are opponents, and off the field they are friends. After seeing that Daiki Hashimoto was injured, Zhang Boheng immediately went over to inquire about the situation. As an athlete, no one wants to see an injury, not even an opponent.
'I admire him, he's really strong. At the same time, I think it's actually a good thing to have a competitor like Daiki Hashimoto, which will make my training and competitions not boring, and I have to grasp every detail better. Zhang Boheng told a reporter from Beiqing Daily.
The Paris Olympics is undoubtedly another peak showdown between Zhang Boheng and Hashimoto Daiki. However, both suffered injuries before the game. Zhang Boheng suffered an aggravated back injury during winter training last year, which affected the systematization of his winter training. Since then, Zhang Boheng has tried his best to recover as soon as possible, and gradually returned to a normal level before the Olympics. Daiki Hashimoto injured his finger before the Olympics, although the injury was not serious, but after all, it also had an impact on training and competitions.
Zhang Boheng and Daiki Hashimoto
The two old rivals finally met at the Paris Olympics. The first round was the men's team competition, Zhang Boheng and Hashimoto Daiki were the leaders of the Sino-Japanese gymnastics men's team, and Zhang Boheng's performance was better than Hashimoto Daiki in the whole game. Daiki Hashimoto made another serious mistake while making a pommel horse, and the person fell directly off the machine. And every project that Zhang Boheng participated in was relatively stable, and there were no major mistakes. Especially in the last horizontal bar, Zhang Boheng was the most consistent of the three Chinese athletes. However, fate played tricks on people, and because Su Weide dropped the bar twice, the Chinese team was reversed and lost the gold medal. Zhang Boheng left a deep regret.
Although he failed to reach the top of the men's team, Zhang Boheng still played a role as a captain after the game. There is a very small detail that Su Weide blamed himself very much, when he participated in the post-game press conference, when asked by the reporter about the mistake, he choked up for a while, and didn't know how to say it, and Zhang Boheng next to him immediately played a round for him and took the initiative to take over the topic to answer. Zhang Boheng hopes to share the burden for his teammates in the most difficult moments.
In the individual all-around final, Daiki Hashimoto made another serious mistake on the pommel horse, and the score fell all at once. And Zhang Boheng continued his steady play, and the score always suppressed Hashimoto. But somewhat unexpectedly, another player from the Japan team, Shinnosuke Oka, scored 86.832 points in six events, leaving the pressure to Zhang Boheng, who was the last to play. Although Zhang Boheng played well on the horizontal bar, scoring 14.633 points, he still missed the summit by 0.233 points.
Shinnosuke Oka became Zhang Boheng's new opponent
For Zhang, this is only his first Olympics, and the presence of opponents like Daiki Hashimoto and Shinnosuke Oka will always motivate him to move forward and make himself stronger.
Text/Beiqing Sports Paris Special Reporter Song Xiang