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Sawao Katō has competed for Japan Sawao Katō has won 8 gold medals at the Olympic Games Sawao Katō has won 3 silver medals at the Olympic Games Sawao Katō has won 1 bronze medal at the Olympic Games

Sawao Katō is a gymnast who has competed for Japan. He competed at the 1968, 1972, and 1976 Summer Olympic Games. He is widely regarded as one of the most successful male gymnasts of all-time. Among his three Olympic trips, he won a total of twelve medals; eight of them were gold, the largest amount attained by any Japanese athlete in Olympic history. He was second after Takashi Ono for the most Olympic medals won by Japanese men (12) and fourth overall in history.

Kato started his Olympic trip at Mexico City 1968 with his elder brother Takeshi. They comfortably dominated the team portion of the men's artistic gymnastics competition, with Sawao also capturing the gold medals in the all-around final and on the floor exercise. He placed third behind the winner Akinori Nakayama on the rings.

Four years later in Munich, the Japanese men's team (led by Kato) dominated the entire competition at the Games, taking 15 out of the 21 individual medals awarded to the gymnasts. He also returned to successfully defend his all-around title, becoming the third man in the event's history to attain such feat since Alberto Bragila in 1912 and Viktor Chukarin in 1956. Apart from his triumphant title defense, he also enjoyed his teammates Eizo Kenmotsu and Nakayama taking the silver and bronze as the Japanese men swept the podium for the first time since Paris 1900. He continued his successful run by adding a gold on the parallel bars and a silver each on the horizontal bar and pommel horse.

Kato aimed for an unprecedented third straight gold in the all-around final at Montreal 1976, but he lost the title to his Soviet rival Nikolai Andrianov by a tenth of a point. Despite a close defeat, he set a record as the first and most decorated man in the event's history with two golds and a silver at three consecutive Olympiads until he later tied with Kōhei Uchimura from 2008 to 2016. The team portion was a close competition between Japan and Soviet Union for the gold, with Kato leading the Japanese men to their fifth straight triumph over the latter by 0.4 of a point. He closed out his Olympic career by retaining his title on the parallel bars.

Olympic Results[]

Year Event Result
1968 Men's individual all-around Gold
Men's team Gold
Men's floor Gold
Men's vault Q5
Men's parallel bars Q3
Men's horizontal bar Q3
Men's rings Bronze
Men's pommel horse 8th
1972 Men's individual all-around Gold
Men's team Gold
Men's floor 6th
Men's vault 4th
Men's parallel bars Gold
Men's horizontal bar Silver
Men's rings 4th
Men's pommel horse Silver
1976 Men's individual all-around Silver
Men's team Gold
Men's floor 5th
Men's vault 7th
Men's parallel bars Gold
Men's horizontal bar Q4
Men's rings 6th
Men's pommel horse 5th

1968[]

Discipline Stage Score
Individual all-around Final 115.900
Team Final 575.900
(115.900)
Floor Qualification 19.650
Final 19.475
Vault Qualification 18.900
Final Did not advance
Parallel bars Qualification 19.350
Final Did not advance
Horizontal bar Qualification 19.450
Final Did not advance
Rings Qualification 19.550
Final 19.225
Pommel horse Qualification 19.000
Final Did not advance

1972[]

Discipline Stage Score
Individual all-around Qualification 115.100
Final 114.650
Team Final 571.250
(115.100)
Floor Qualification 19.100
Final 18.750
Vault Qualification 19.000
Final 18.550
Parallel bars Qualification 19.350
Final 19.475
Horizontal bar Qualification 19.550
Final 19.525
Rings Qualification 19.100
Final 19.150
Pommel horse Qualification 19.000
Final 19.000

1976[]

Discipline Stage Score
Individual all-around Qualification 115.900
Final 115.650
Team Final 576.850
(115.900)
Floor Qualification 19.200
Final 19.250
Vault Qualification 19.100
Final Did not advance
Parallel bars Qualification 19.550
Final 19.675
Horizontal bar Qualification 19.400
Final Did not advance
Rings Qualification 19.250
Final 19.125
Pommel horse Qualification 19.400
Final 19.400
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