Daiki Hashimoto was the one on the horizontal bar. He was the particular person spinning round and round performing intricate actions and twisting by means of the air when he let go of the bar earlier than catching it once more to renew along with his routine. He was one of many solely athletes on the ground on the time, so the rapt consideration of Bercy Arena was educated on the 22-year-old. When he carried out his dismount, the group cheered.
The rating sheet will eternally present that Hashimoto was alone on that bar, a lonely determine tasked with balancing the hopes of his nation on his muscular shoulders. It will solely be his identify beside the 14.566 rating that finally propelled Japan previous China and to the gold medal within the males’s gymnastics workforce competitors on the Paris Olympics on Monday.
Hashimoto, although, may quibble with that truth. Because instantly after his last-gasp heroics, he was adamant that he was not alone.