Akinori Nakayama

Akinori Nakayama, who lived from 1 March 1943 to 9 March 2025, was a Japanese gymnast and Olympic gold medalist, born in Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture and a graduate of Chukyo University. He is one of only three gymnasts to become Olympic champion on the rings twice. He won six medals at the 1966 World Championships, three of them gold, in the team all-around, the floor exercise and the horizontal bar. At the 1968 Summer Olympics he won four gold, one silver and one bronze medals, which made him the most successful male athlete of those Games, and in 1970 he won four more world titles, in the team competition, on the rings, on the floor and on the parallel bars. He won four more medals at the 1972 Summer Olympics. After retiring he was vice-president of the Japanese Gymnastics Federation and coached at Chukyo University, and in 2005 he was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.