"Japanese Athlete Wins Gold Despite Mistake..." China Angered Over Gymnastics Silver Medal

On the 28th, in the men's individual all-around gymnastics event at the Tokyo Olympics, Japan's Hashimoto Daiki won the gold medal by defeating China's Xiao Luoteng, sparking controversy as Chinese netizens raised suspicions of biased judging in favor of Japan.
[Photo by Twitter]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] Controversy has erupted as Chinese netizens raised suspicions of biased judging after a Japanese athlete won the gold medal over a Chinese athlete in the gymnastics competition at the Tokyo Olympics. In response, Japanese authorities issued an unusual statement asserting that "the judging was fair."

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun on the 31st, during the men's individual all-around gymnastics event held on the 28th, Japanese athlete Hashimoto Daiki won the gold medal over Chinese athlete Xiao Ruoteng despite making a mistake, which sparked backlash from Chinese netizens.

The individual all-around combines scores from six events: floor exercise, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, and horizontal bar to determine the winner. On that day, Hashimoto scored 14.7 points on vault despite stepping off the mat during the landing. Coincidentally, Xiao Ruoteng, who did not make a mistake, also received a vault score of 14.7 points.

Hashimoto's total score was 88.465 points, while Xiao Ruoteng received 88.065 points, resulting in a 0.4-point difference that determined the medal colors.

In response, Chinese netizens have been posting complaints on Weibo daily, expressing dissatisfaction with the judging, claiming that Hashimoto received a high score despite his foot stepping outside the mat during the vault landing.

They compared footage of Hashimoto's landing mistake with Xiao Ruoteng's landing, creating composites and videos. The Tokyo Shimbun also reported that some posts included Japanese messages, presumably written using translation software, such as "The stolen medal will kill you at night."

On the 28th, in the men's individual all-around gymnastics event at the Tokyo Olympics, Japan's Hashimoto Daiki won the gold medal by defeating China's Xiao Luoteng, sparking controversy as Chinese netizens raised suspicions of biased judging in favor of Japan.
[Photo by Instagram capture]

As criticism toward Hashimoto continued, Xiao Ruoteng himself stepped forward to ask for restraint. On the 29th, Xiao posted a photo on Weibo showing him holding a medal with Hashimoto and wrote a message urging people to "stop excessive attacks on the athlete."

On the same day, Hashimoto explained on Instagram, "The vault score may seem strange, but the official scoring results were released by FIG. The deduction items are properly indicated." He also apologized, saying he was "sorry" for performing at a level that ultimately raised doubts about the judging on the Tokyo Olympics stage.

Earlier, as the controversy continued, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) released detailed deduction items related to the competition and issued a statement saying, "Based on the scoring rules, the evaluation can be considered correct," and "The judging was fair and accurate."

Meanwhile, as the host country of the Olympics, Japan is recording its largest number of gold medals ever at the Tokyo Olympics.

According to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as of 2 p.m. on the 31st, Japan is in second place overall with 17 gold medals, 4 silver medals, and 6 bronze medals, following China, which has 19 gold medals, 11 silver medals, and 11 bronze medals.

Accordingly, Japan has surpassed its previous record for the most gold medals at a Summer Olympics, which was 16, set at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and the 2004 Athens Olympics.

As the host country Japan shows unexpected strong performance, a representative of the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) reportedly could not hide their surprise, according to the Mainichi Shimbun on the 30th. The JOC aims to win 30 gold medals at this Olympics.