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is a retired Japanese gymnast and one of the most successful Olympic athletes of all time. Between 1968 and 1976 he won twelve Olympics medals, including eight gold medals.〔(Sawao Kato ). sports-reference.com〕 Kato was born in Niigata Prefecture and studied at the Tokyo Kyoiku University. He first competed in the Olympics in 1968, alongside his elder brother Takeshi. They won the team competition, with Sawao also taking gold medals in the all-around and on the floor. He placed third in the rings event.〔 Four years later the Japanese men's gymnastics team dominated the 1972 Olympics, taking 15 out of 21 individual medals. Kato won gold medals all-around and in the parallel bars and silvers on the horizontal bar and pommel horse. He aimed for an unprecedented third gold medal in the all-around at the 1976 Summer Olympics, but was defeated by Nikolai Andrianov. The team competition was close this time, but the Japanese defeated the Soviets by four tenths of a point, earning their fifth consecutive title. Kato closed out his Olympic career by retaining his title in the parallel bars.〔 Kato is one of only ten athletes to have won eight or more Olympic gold medals. He is one of the most successful male gymnasts ever at the Olympics: his 8 gold and 12 overall medals are best rivaled by Nikolai Andrianov's 7 gold and 15 overall, Boris Shakhlin's 7 gold and 13 overall, and Takashi Ono's 5 golds and 13 overall. He won more Olympic gold medals than any Japanese Olympian, and is second after Ono in the total number of medals. In 2001 Kato was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 work = International Gymnastics Hall of Fame )〕 At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Kato became involved in a controversy in the men's team competition. Being the head judge he lowered by 0.2 points the maximum score for a release move on the horizontal bar, which was part of the program of three American gymnasts: Brett McClure, Jason Gatson and Blaine Wilson. Consequently, Gatson and Wilson replaced the release move with a more difficult one, which resulted in a fall by Wilson and a loss of U.S. Team to Japan.〔Garcia, Marlen (August 15, 2004) (Late scoring switch raises bar ). ''Chicago Tribune''.〕 As of 2010 Kato was a professor emeritus at the University of Tsukuba.〔(The Statue of Dr. Jigoro Kano Unveiled ). University of Tsukuba. December 1, 2010〕 ==See also== *List of multiple Olympic gold medalists * List of Olympic medal leaders in men's gymnastics 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sawao Kato」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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