HIGHLIGHTS
TANIGAWA Wataru: Believing in Himself as He Aims for the Pinnacle of Global Gymnastics
This time, we spoke with Wataru Tanigawa, who is slated to compete in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games following his silver medal-winning performance in the Tokyo 2020 Games in the men’s team all-around event. He discussed his fascination with gymnastics, which he has been actively competing in since his days as a junior athlete, and his determination to compete in his second consecutive Olympics.
（Interviewed on May 27th 2024）
I’ve heard that your first experience with gymnastics happened when you were in kindergarten.
“The kindergarten I went to had gymnastics classes, and I liked doing the vaulting boxes and other things. I’d always been good at athletics, so once I got to elementary school I joined a gymnastics club, and I’ve been hooked on it ever since. I’ve always had a competitive nature, so I wanted to be better than my friends at jumping over the boxes, and I also felt a great sense of accomplishment when I pulled off a new move, so those feelings led to my enjoyment of practicing. The feeling of excitement I have toward gymnastics hasn’t changed since I first started.”
Your younger brother Kakeru, who is two years younger than you, followed your lead and also took up gymnastics, and now the fact that you’re competing together is attracting attention.
“When we were kids, I was most definitely better than him, but over time Kakeru got better and better, and before I knew it, he and I were on the same level. I think the first time he beat me was when I was in junior high school. Since then, it’s been anyone’s guess which one of us would win. Kakeru and I have been really close since we were little, and I don’t remember us ever fighting. We’re brothers, rivals, and friends all at the same time, and that special relationship we have is very important because it fosters a sense of friendly competition and mutual improvement.”
What aspects of gymnastics do you find appealing?
“More than anything else, I like the joy I feel when I successfully perform a new move. It’s a great feeling when you finally pull off a difficult technique after so much practice, and so is when you land it perfectly at a competition and hear the cheers from the crowd. Of course there are things that can go wrong, like making mistakes in important situations and losing the competition. When that happens, I sometimes feel like it’s impossible and feel like giving up, but the next day, my thoughts turn to how to keep from failing and how to win. I can think like that because gymnastics is so endlessly interesting and fascinating to me.”
Out of the six events in men’s gymnastics ― floor exercise, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, and horizontal bar ― your strongest event is the vault.
“The vault is an event where victory is determined in an instant. To me, the appeal of the event is that all the time spent practicing for that one moment is condensed and expressed in your performance. My signature move is the Ri Se-gwang 2. It’s a big move that combines vertical rotation and horizontal twisting, and not many other Japanese athletes do it. That’s why I’ve been given the chance to compete on the world stage and make my own contribution in the team events. I think my skills in the vault are my greatest asset, and also what makes my place on the team meaningful.”
Events such as the rings are different from the vault in that one of the highlights is the fast-paced changes between stillness and motion.
“When you stop, it has to be precise, and you have to keep your body still and maintain good posture. Conversely, the rotations have to be dynamic, and the landing at the end has to be sharp. Performing this sequence of events perfectly is what makes it successful, so those that are watching are holding their breath until the very end. Another reason you can’t take your eyes off the competition is that you won’t know who the winner is until the final landing is made, and that feeling of a rush is what makes it exciting for people. As a competitor, the most important thing is to get through it without giving up and without making mistakes, and the athletes who are able to do that are the ones that become successful.”
What do you keep in mind to ensure that you can make the most of your daily practice in these high-pressure competitions?
“It’s all about believing in myself and doing my absolute best. The only way to achieve this is to practice enough to the point where you can take on challenges with a confident attitude, thinking, ‘I’ve put this much effort into it, so I can do it!’ I can quash those seeds of worry through practice and hone my moves to the point where I can pull them off 99% of the time. No matter how difficult a move is, if you can do it only once every two times you try it, you can’t use that in a competition. Daily practice is a must, because this isn’t a sport where you can compete with a hit-or-miss approach. World-class athletes, myself included, spend a lot of time building up this vast amount of experience day-to-day for the sake of performing in competitions.”
In your first Olympic appearance at the Tokyo 2020 Games, you won the silver medal in the men’s team all-around.
“At the Tokyo 2020 Games, everyone on the team believed in each other and we went into the event with confidence. As a result, we got through all 18 of our performances without any mistakes. It was my first Olympic medal, and I was feeling really satisfied up until right after our competition ended. But when I calmed down and looked back on the event with a cool head, I started to feel frustrated and thought things like, ‘If only I had stuck that one landing more cleanly…’ Minor mistakes like that are what led to us losing to the ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) by only 0.103 points. But it was also a great benefit for us to know that we had such clear challenges to overcome.”
Your performance since the Tokyo Games has also been remarkable, including the silver medal in the men’s team all-around and the bronze in the men’s individual all-around at the 2022 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Liverpool, England. The following year, in 2023, you also won the gold in the vault at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
“In the Tokyo 2020 Games, I messed up in the individual vault event in the qualifying round and didn’t advance to the finals, which was disappointing, but winning the individual gold at Hangzhou gave me a boost in confidence and also served as a stepping stone for competing at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The 2024 Paris Olympics are just around the corner. What is your enthusiasm like right now?
“All the practice and experience we’ve accumulated thus far is our greatest strength, so we can rely on that with each and every move we perform, with our ultimate goal being gold medals not just as a team but in the individual events as well. We’re all in it together in the team event, but there’s also a bit of a battle among us to see who can make it to the individual all-around event. While gymnastics is a competitive sport, it’s not a direct battle with your opponents, but a battle with yourself to see how much you can do with what you’ve gotten up to that point. For me personally, the pressure doesn’t only come from the members that have been selected for the team, but also from the alternates who say, ‘I can take your place anytime!’ So it’s like a stimulus from multiple directions that keeps me on my toes. That said, we’re all friendly with each other, and we’re all aiming for a higher level of performance. My hope is that people can see Team Japan in this way and take notice of all of our performances.”
These days, there is an increasing number of tourists coming to Japan from abroad to watch sporting events. What do you recommend as a way that visitors can enjoy their time in Japan?
“These days I really enjoy saunas. There’s a place in my hometown of Funabashi that has individual saunas, and new facilities are springing up as well. It’s a great way to relax and also rejuvenate your mind and body. As far as food goes, I recommend broiled eel. The meat is really tender, and the taste of it paired with the sweet and spicy sauce is something that I’m sure foreign visitors can enjoy as well. A great way to enjoy Japan in the summer is to sweat it out in a sauna, then build up your stamina with broiled eel.”
＜Profile＞
TANIGAWA Wataru
Born in 1996 in Chiba Prefecture. Placed 3rd in the individual floor exercise in the All-Japan Artistic Gymnastics Championships in his third year of high school, and in his second year of university, he won the individual vault, and went on to become the first Japanese competitor at the 2017 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships. Won the silver medal in the gymnastics men’s team all-around event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Won a silver medal in the men’s team event and a bronze medal in the men’s individual all-around event at the 2022 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships. Won a silver medal in the men’s team event, a gold medal in the individual vault, and a bronze medal in the individual rings at the Asian Games in 2023 in Hangzhou, China.
