Do we like them?

Do we like Kohei Uchimura?

Our score: 7 out of 10. Decent and on the right side as far as the record shows, but it's thin outside the gym, so we're not going higher.

Nothing new on him lately. Kohei Uchimura retired from competition in January 2022, aged 33, announced through his management, and he's been out of the headlines since. Our searches turned up no 2026 controversy or comeback story.

The backstory is pure gym kid. He was born to gymnast parents who ran a gym, and he became the sport's dominant figure, winning every Olympic and world all-around title from 2009 to 2016. In 2016 he became the first man in 44 years to win back-to-back Olympic all-around titles, and Japan called him “King Kohei”.

His one real stoush was a judging mix-up, not a misdeed. At London 2012 he botched a pommel horse dismount, Japan appealed, and the judges lifted his score, which pushed Japan up to silver and Britain down to third. Uchimura said he felt sorry for the others, then backtracked and said that's just how the scoring system works. He didn't make the call; he just copped the awkwardness.

On the harm check, we found nothing. No remarks about LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet, no conspiracy rabbit holes, and no court cases or misconduct allegations turned up in our searches. That's partly because he's an athlete who mostly talks about gymnastics, so the honest read is clean but thin.

The humility is real. After qualifying in Tokyo in 2021 he said he didn't feel he deserved to be called “king” after that performance. He fell off the high bar there and missed the final, ending his Olympic career without a medal, and he handled it with grace. In 2017 he also took on a role as a reconstruction support ambassador for Japan's Reconstruction Agency, aimed at keeping attention on areas of Tohoku hit by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

So the verdict: we'd happily cheer him on. A genuine great who took his falls on the chin, did some public service, and left no trail of harm. Where the file is quiet, we say it's quiet rather than make a call.