Why they rank here
No male gymnast has won more Olympic gold medals. Kato took eight golds and 12 medals in total across Mexico City 1968, Munich 1972 and Montreal 1976, and he is one of only two men to win the Olympic all-around title twice in the modern era, taking it in 1968 and 1972. He was the central figure in the most durable dynasty the men's sport has produced: Japan won five consecutive Olympic team titles from 1960 to 1976, and Kato was on the last three of them. His strength was parallel bars, where he won gold in both 1972 and 1976, but his reputation rested on a technical purity that Japanese coaching has pursued ever since — the priority on line, amplitude and stuck landings that Kohei Uchimura would inherit two generations later. He competed the 1972 Games with a shoulder injury that would have ended most careers and still won three golds.
Career profile
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Head-to-head
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