Great Sporting Stories - 1: Shun Fujimoto

Shun Fujimoto.... There are so many great stories from the olympics that picking out one is close to impossible. But one story which stands out in terms of the selflessness, grit through pain and a monumental comeback is Shun Fujimoto in the 1976 Montreal games. Going into the games Japan were the doyens of mens gymnastics winning the gold in the last 4 olympic games (1960-1972) in the overall team competition. He was part of a strong japanese team that was expected to do continue the tradition of victory in the montreal olympics. The former USSR team were their main threat and infact was leading by a point when disaster struck Fujimoto. Towards the end of his floor routine, he had a bad landing and broke his knee. "I felt air in my knee" is how he describes it later. But fujimoto just grimaced and went back to his chair not telling his team or his coach the extent of his injury. His best events were coming up and he did not want to burden the team by quitting. Now a knee injury for a gymnast is as bad as they get, but luckily for Shun, the pommel horse and the rings required a greater share of hands and core. He performed through the pommel horse in excruciating pain and scored a 9.7. Next up was the rings, an event which he considered to be amongst his stronger events. What really worried him was the small matter of the 10 feet dismount with somersaults and body twists. He took to the rings and gave the performance of a lifetime. His dismount was perfect, but as he landed, he dislocated his knee but ignored the pain to raise his hands and smile to the judges before collapsing in agony. He then hobbled off to a 9.7 score which was the highest score for that apparatus. Inspired by his sacrifice, the japanese team went on to retain gold. Shun fujimoto became a legend of courage and selflessness in japan.