Japanese athlete's 'chivalrous' action towards Chinese colleague causes a stir at 2024 Olympics
Japan's top gymnast Daiki Hashimoto gave his country a fairytale ending with a dramatic victory at the Paris Olympics on Monday.
But not only that, Hashimoto's chivalrous act towards his Chinese colleague attracted the attention and enthusiastic applause of the audience. Hashimoto's spontaneous action also made social networks buzz with admiration.
Following Japan's comeback win over China a day earlier, fans have been posting photos and video clips of Japanese all-around champion Daiki Hashimoto facing the stands with his index finger on his lips, signaling the crowd to be quiet to watch his Chinese opponent Zhang Boheng's final performance.
It is worth mentioning that it was Hashimoto who had previously made the team's only major mistake when he fell and caused Japan to fall far behind China.
By the final round of the horizontal bar event, China was still leading Japan by 3.267 points. This was considered an extremely difficult gap to overcome when each event had only 3 athletes competing. Xiao Ruoteng, Su Weide and Zhang Boheng represented the Chinese team on the stage. Xiao Ruoteng had a bad start when he landed incorrectly and only scored 13.433 points. Immediately after, Su Weide made an even worse mistake. Su Weide slipped off the horizontal bar not once but twice in a row.
The Japanese team took advantage of Su Weide's mistake to win the final match by 0.532 points, with Hashimoto taking the final shot to bring victory to Japan.
Afterwards, Hashimoto recalled the overwhelming emotions as he completed the high bar without incident and heard the crowd at Bercy Arena cheer and applaud.
"The landing wasn't perfect and that was a shame, but seeing the audience stand up in applause made it the most amazing moment. Even before the performance, my eyes were a little teary, and after landing, I felt an indescribable joy," Hashimoto said.
But that did not stop the 22-year-old from signaling the crowd to be quiet so Zhang Boheng could finish his routine. The two are considered strong contenders for the all-around title on Wednesday.
Hashimoto and teammates Kazuma Kaya, Shinnosuke Oka, Takaaki Sugino and Wataru Tanigawa closed out the evening with another nice gesture at the medal ceremony. After the men from the United States and China received their bronze and silver medals, the Japanese team stepped down from the podium to shake hands with their 10 opponents, before stepping up to receive their medals./.
