Naoya Tsukahara

Personal information
Born	(1977-06-25)June 25, 1977 (age 48) Nagasaki,Japan
Height	1.60 m (5 ft 3 in)
Gymnastics career
Sport	Men's artistic gymnastics
Country represented	Australia
Former country represented	Japan
Medal record Men'sartistic gymnastics Representing Japan Olympic Games 2004 Athens Team all-around World Championships 1999 Tianjin All-around 1999 Tianjin Parallel bars 1997 Lausanne All-around 1997 Lausanne Parallel bars 2003 Anaheim Team all-around 2006 Aarhus Team all-around

Naoya Tsukahara (Japanese:塚原 直也Tsukahara Naoya, born June 25, 1977) is a former Japaneseartistic gymnast and 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist^[1] now coaching and competing for Australia. He is the son of the former Japanese gymnast,Mitsuo Tsukahara, who was also a multiple gold medalist in theOlympic Games during the 1960s and 70s.^[2] He competed at the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympics as well as many World Championships for team Japan from 1996 until 2006. In 2009, he moved to Australia, gaining citizenship in 2012, and currently represents Australia's national gymnastics team, most recently competing at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

Naoya participated at the1996 Olympics inAtlanta. The Japanese team finished 10th in the team final. Individually, Naoya qualified into the all-around final and finished 12th in the final.^[3]

Although Naoya did not get any medal in the1996 Olympics, he had been quite successful after that. In the1997 World Championships, he won two bronze medals in the all-around and onparallel bars. In the1999 World Championships, he had pushed himself to a higher level of success, winning silver medals in all-around and on parallel bars.

Following his successes at the World Championships, Naoya eventually came to his second Olympic Games, the2000 Olympics inSydney. This time the Japanese gymnastics team was edged by the Russian team for a bronze medal. Individually, Naoya qualified 6th and 10th into thehorizontal bar and all-around final respectively. He finally finished 18th in all-around final, and a fall in the horizontal bar final made him come last, with a score of 8.825.

After the2000 Summer Olympics, Naoya could not regain his form of 2000. In addition, there were some fabulous gymnasts rose in Japan, includingHiroyuki Tomita,Isao Yoneda andTakehiro Kashima. Naoya's character in the national team changed from an all-around competitor into an anchor for the Japanese gymnastics team.

In the2003 World Championships, Naoya made it into the all-around and parallel bars finals, finishing 7th in the all-around while his teammate,Hiroyuki Tomita, won a bronze in that event. Individually, Naoya placed 4th on his strongest event, parallel bars with a score of 9.675.

Naoya made the2004 Summer Olympics held inAthens,Greece. The Japanese team showed strong performances and eventually won the team gold medal. Naoya placed 4th onfloor exercise in prelim with a 9.725, the same score of his teammates,Isao Yoneda andDaisuke Nakano.^[4] However, the tie-breaker policy favoured his two teammates into the final. He did not qualify into the all-around final.

Naoya was 27 when the Olympics inAthens wrapped, which was an age considered 'old' for gymnastics. Nevertheless, he kept competing. He won a bronze medal with the team in the2006 World Championships but could not make the2008 Summer Olympics.

In 2009, he moved to Australia, competing and winning at the 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2013 Australian National Gymnastics Championships, and winning 2nd place behindJoshua Jefferis in 2012.^[5] In 2012, he gained Australian citizenship, allowing him to compete representing Australia in international competitions.^[6] However, the process was not completed in time for qualification to the2012 Olympic Games. In 2013, he competed at the 2013 World Championships, narrowly missing the all-around finals, but premiering two new variations of the V-cross on still rings. FIG later announced the Li Ning 2 to V-cross as the "Tsukahara," named after the athlete.^[7] This rare honor for a gymnast is one his father also experienced multiple times. He also competed in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, UK.

In March 2016, Tsukahara retired.^[8]

• Official website at theWayback Machine (archived 14 June 2009)(in Japanese)
• Naoya Tsukahara at theInternational Gymnastics Federation
• Naoya Tsukahara atOlympics.com
• Naoya Tsukahara atOlympedia

• 1977 births
• Living people
• Japanese male artistic gymnasts
• Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
• Olympic gymnasts for Japan
• Gymnasts at the 1996 Summer Olympics
• Gymnasts at the 2000 Summer Olympics
• Gymnasts at the 2004 Summer Olympics
• Olympic gold medalists for Japan
• Olympic medalists in gymnastics
• Asian Games bronze medalists in gymnastics
• Gymnasts at the 1998 Asian Games
• Gymnasts at the 2002 Asian Games
• Gymnasts at the 2014 Commonwealth Games
• Australian male artistic gymnasts
• Australian people of Japanese descent
• Sportspeople of Japanese descent
• Commonwealth Games competitors for Australia
• Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics
• Asian Games bronze medalists for Japan
• Medalists at the 1998 Asian Games
• Medalists at the 2002 Asian Games
• Summer World University Games medalists in gymnastics
• FISU World University Games gold medalists for Japan
• FISU World University Games silver medalists for Japan
• Medalists at the 1997 Summer Universiade
• 20th-century Japanese sportsmen
• 21st-century Japanese sportsmen
• Sportspeople from Nagasaki Prefecture

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