Daiki Hashimoto was the one on the horizontal bar. He was the person spinning around and around performing intricate movements and twisting through the air when he let go of the bar before catching it again to resume his routine. He was one of the only athletes on the floor at the time, so the rapt attention of Bercy Arena was trained on the 22-year-old. When he performed his dismount, the crowd cheered.
The score sheet will forever show that Hashimoto was alone on that bar, a lonely figure tasked with balancing the hopes of his nation on his muscular shoulders. It will only be his name beside the 14.566 score that ultimately propelled Japan past China and to the gold medal in the men’s gymnastics team competition at the Paris Olympics on Monday.
Hashimoto, though, might quibble with that fact. Because immediately after his last-gasp heroics, he was adamant that he was not alone.