Kenzō Shirai

In October 2013, shortly after turning 17, Shirai was the youngest man selected to compete at the 2013 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships,[7] one of two major FIG-organised international events, for the first time, in Antwerp, Belgium. He with Kim Hee Hoon of South Korea successfully completed a same new skill then—now officially named the Shirai or Shirai-Kim on vault, or Yurchenko (a vault platform entry skill with RO–BH approach upon vaulting table—naming credit given to former Soviet gymnast Natalia Yurchenko at a 1982 Moscow competition) triple twist or TTY—automatically qualifying it to adopt both the gymnasts’ names. Shirai and Tuan Dat Nguyen of Vietnam likewise successfully completed another same new skill too on floor—the Shirai or Shirai-Nguyen on floor, or quadruple-twisting back layout. Both skills took the names of two athletes officially, but each skill also evolved separately to have its name shortened over time by many in practice to only the Shirai, owing a lot to Shirai first qualifying for these two individual event finals, and then also finishing well in them—Kim and Nguyen did not qualify for their own event finals. Shirai became relevant quickly at senior international elite circuit competitions due to his constant presence, continual participation, friendly disposition, and likeability. Shirai did successfully originate still one more skill on his own here in Antwerp to now officially bear only his name–the Shirai 2 on floor, or layout triple twist forwards. The Shirai (or Shirai-Kim) on vault, plus Shirai (or Shirai-Nguyen) and Shirai 2 on floor exercise were assessed respective D-scores of 6.0, plus F (0.6) and F (0.6) in the FIG’s 2013–2016 CoP then. The D-score of Shirai’s floor skills held up well, but vault was decreased to 5.6 after adjustment in the next quad's 2017–2020 CoP.

No team event was held here as it became customary to exclude the team event at every world championships, which immediately followed the Olympics since 2005. Due to this custom and the WC not occurring in Olympic years, team events are in effect only held consistently using a “two (consecutive) years on and two years off” format as one four-year Olympic cycle moves on to the next with the “on” years always being second and third since first is by custom “off” and fourth is Olympic year. Qualifying for the very first individual floor and vault apparatus finals, Shirai was also the youngest male to take gold here. He was 17 years, 1 month and 11 days old. In the individual floor event final, he became the youngest ever male world champion on floor too using a “historic” top-D-score-of-7.4 routine consisting of 22¼ twists. His passes: 1) RO–BH–3½ punch double full, 2) front full punch Shirai 2, 3) RO–whip back–triple full, 4) RO–BH–2½ punch 2½, 5) RO–side flip full twist, and 6) RO–BH–Shirai. Compatriot Kōhei Uchimura captured the bronze medal with a total score of 15.500, and highest execution score (E-score) of 9.100 in that final. Posting a 16.000 total score, Shirai’s 0.4 victory margin over American silver medallist Jacob Dalton, who posted a 15.600, was biggest between any top individual finalist pairs. Known after Antwerp for his uncanny “twisting” abilities, Shirai usually competed floor routines of D-scores well above 7.0 with nearly only twisting skills/combinations. Due to Shirai’s demonstrated clean execution of this extremely difficult routine in qualifying, it gave American gold-medallist-turned-commentator Tim Daggett enough confidence to declare on live TV that “there is no way Shirai doesn’t win this” right before Shirai started his final routine, which Shirai twisted his way to a gold medal.[8]

In the individual vault event final, Shirai's was given a 0.1-point penalty on the first vault for stepping out-of-bounds, finishing him fourth (15.133) place instead of tying for third highest combined average. Both Shirai’s vaults completed were the Shirai or Shirai-Kim, and Driggs (Tsukahara 2½ twist; originated by Abel Driggs Santos of Cuba in the 2000s), and they had D-score values of 6.0 and 5.6 respectively in the FIG’s then most recent 2013–2016 CoP for MAG. These vaulting numbers were each 15.266 and 14.900. The defending (2011) world titlist and (2012) Olympic champion on vault then, Yang Hak Seon of South Korea (15.533), took home the gold medal with Steven Legendre of the United States (15.249) and Kristian Thomas of Great Britain (15.233) also in good form as they secured silver and bronze medals. Naming of the Shirai on vault or floor is considered important in AG as less original skills have been named recently due to stricter rules of what skills qualify, slowing the ever increasing number of eponymous-skill names to help avoid confusion for people less familiar with them. Original names are now generally only given to skills that have some significance to the overall sport of AG with other successfully-originated-skill names deriving from their common and skill progression ones in practice.

In October 2014, Shirai competed at the 2014 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Nanning, China. In the team event finals, his solid contribution was on two events, floor and vault, helping team Japan win silver with a final score of 273.269 behind team China with 273.369—just 0.1 short of tie for gold (e.g. one small step). Shirai had the second highest numbers on both events in the team final with scores of 15.766 on floor behind the 15.900 posted by Jacob Dalton of the United States, who Shirai had relegated into second place in the individual floor event final the year before, and 15.400 on vault behind the 15.566 posted by Sérgio Sasaki of Brazil. Shirai and his AG team were happy in retaking silver, matching their recent best results in 2007 and 2010. In 2011, they just managed seventh place in the team final. In the individual event finals, Shirai qualified again for floor exercise and vault. After qualifying into the individual floor exercise event final with the familiar 7.4-D-score routine, Shirai was unable to defend 2013’s world title, securing silver instead with a score of 15.733. Shirai was said to be working on improving the routine’s E-score mark as a technical error (stepping out-of-bounds on third pass) cost him 0.1 penalty from the overall score, and enough to lose the gold medal by only 0.017, placing him second behind a surprised Denis Ablyazin of Russia (15.750),[9] who had won the bronze in the individual floor final at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London with the same-longer-7.1-and-then-top-D-score routine. In floor qualifying, Shirai (16.033) received the identical penalty, and also placed second behind Ablyazin (16.066). Despite expectations of him defending his world floor title, some have also duly noted that even with far greater D-scores comparatively, Shirai’s routines consisted of compositions derived only from “single somersault” (one revolution) skills until then, which were quite uncommon plus limiting too, made harder entirely by completing them before and/or after in combination as different combos using various twisting/bounding skills. In addition to an anticipation of what else we could expect of Shirai in the not-too-distant future, British commentary has reported that he was working towards the ability of completing a quintuple-twisting (back layout) somersault soon.

In the individual vault event final, Shirai finished in fourth place again with an average combined score of 15.062 despite having one of the two top E-scores (9.466) in the final, but he unfortunately had a comparatively weak second vault with a D-score of only 5.6, which was the only vault that final scoring below 6.0 and significantly lower than all of his other vaults executed in that final, and ended any chance of him seriously challenging his rivals. In contrast, the eventual gold medallist had a 6.4 D-score value for both of his vaults, which resulted in a 0.8-point deficit just on Shirai’s second vault alone right from the beginning even before the event final started. Ri Se Gwang of North Korea (15.416) had won the gold medal with Igor Radivilov of Ukraine (15.333) and Dalton (15.199) securing their respective silver and bronze. South Korea’s top-qualifying-two-time-defending-champion Yang Hak Seon placed seventh even with two top-6.4-D-score skills as he crashed both of his vaults—the then new Yang Hak Seon 2 (Tsukahara 3½ twist) and Yang Hak Seon (front handspring triple full). Winner Ri also executed both of his 6.4 D-score vaults, the Ri Se Gwang (full-twisting double Tsukahara) and Ri Se Gwang 2 (front handspring double piked with half turn, or more commonly aka the “Drăgulescu piked” in practice).

In October 2015, Shirai competed at the 2015 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. In the team event finals, he made contributions on the same two apparatuses again, floor exercise and vault, and helped Japan secure the team gold medal this year with a combined score total of 270.818, outscoring the silver medal team from Great Britain by nearly ½ a point. Shirai’s score in the floor exercise final (16.325) was its highest among all of the athletes, and the only score to exceed 16 points with the second highest at over ½ a point lower. His vault score of 15.533 was the team event finals’ second highest posted for this apparatus too behind the 15.700 posted by Russia’s Denis Ablyazin, who also narrowly defeated Shirai for his gold in the individual floor exercise event final at last year’s 2014 WC. Shirai also made the individual floor and vault event finals again. On October 31, 2015, Shirai secured his second world floor title. In the individual floor event final, he successfully performed another extremely difficult routine and scored a 16.233—ahead of Briton Max Whitlock and Rayderley Zapata of Spain. Shirai’s victory margin from Whitlock in the final was 0.667, the biggest among the men’s finals across the 2015 WC, outscoring even his winning margin in 2013’s individual floor event final.

Shirai’s latest floor routine with even more extreme D-score start value of 7.6 was once again highest among all the competing event finalists. Resulting big maximum score was due to high connection bonuses of the various skill combinations—namely for ending most passes with forward blind landings risking his combination lines. His routines till then only consisted of “single somersault” (one revolution) skills, and it was at this event here where Shirai began showing off too additional abilities to complete “double somersault” (two revolutions) skills consistently, namely the Ri Jong Song on floor (or triple-twisting double back [tucked] somersault; originated by North Korea’s Ri Jong Song at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens) with a high G (0.7) D-score, the second highest value that was given then to skills on all events except for vault in artistic gymnastics to be his floor routine’s second pass. Hence, Shirai needed to amend his existing second pass of “front full twist punch Shirai 2” to come third, and also eliminate the routine’s original third pass of “RO–whip back–triple full” completely. Order of all the updated passes: 1) RO–BH–3½ twist punch double full, 2) RO–BH–Ri Jong Song, 3) forward full punch Shirai 2, 4) RO–BH–2½ twist punch 2½ twist, 5) RO–full-twisting side somersault, and 6) RO–BH–Shirai.

In the individual vault event final, Shirai placed seventh with the average combined score of 14.516. He had posted competitive E-scores among the finalists, but both Shirai’s vaults had the lower D-scores of 5.6 and 5.2 for 2015, lacking then the higher numbers necessary to achieve the bigger average combined score needed and realistically challenge the world's top vaulters for a spot on the podium when every other vault completed in the individual final had a score of 6.0 in difficulty or above. One detail to note here of Shirai’s worst vault final result since his debut at the 2013 WC—he started both his two planned vaults normally, but due to his poor landing position of the “Yurchenko” first vault, Shirai or Shirai-Kim (3 twists) with 6.0 difficulty, judges downgraded it to the Shewfelt or Amanar (2½ twists) with 5.6 difficulty for incomplete twisting,[10] resulting in Shirai’s team decision to simplify his “Tsukahara” next or second vault from the Driggs (2½ twists) with 5.6 difficulty to Akopian (2 twists—originated by Artur Akopian of the former Soviet Union at the WC earlier in the 1980s) with 5.2 difficulty just as Shirai’s chances of medalling at this point of the competition had then suddenly become mathematically extremely unlikely in an instant, effectively due to the initial difficulty loss of 0.4 on his higher-scoring vault. These numbers, 5.6 and 5.2, happen to correspond perfectly then too with the lower D-scores of the respective Shirai or Shirai-Kim, and Driggs in next quad’s CoP. Ri Se Gwang of North Korea (15.450) defended his gold, Romania’s Marian Drăgulescu (15.400) won silver, and American Donnell Whittenburg (15.350) won bronze.

On December 12–13, 2015, Shirai—representing previously his childhood home club, Tsurumi Junior Gymnastics Club, he currently competes out of his university as new home club Nippon Sport Science University (NSSU)—competed at the lower-profile but respectable 2015 Toyota International Gymnastics Competition in Toyota City, Japan. Even though not an FIG-organised international competition, they had a good pool of gymnasts on their roster, and were of some importance because he had successfully completed his third original skill, one of the currently two most difficult skills on floor in MAG. Via petition, the skill has since taken Shirai’s name, and been officially named the Shirai 3 on floor. Practically, it is the straight Ri Jong Song on floor (or triple-twisting double layout), an H (0.8) second “double somersault” (two revolutions) skill, which would later be incorporated into a new floor routine in the next 2017–2020 quad. His routine’s passes in this quad would stay unchanged. This was one of the last options to compete in the 2015 season as gymnasts use it to help peak performances as they move on to the fast-approaching Olympic year. At this individual-apparatus-only competition, Shirai won both golds in the individual floor and vault apparatus finals, posting scores of 15.700 and 15.225 respectively.

Due to its extreme difficulty of the Shirai 3 on floor then, Shirai also achieved the very rare honour of sharing with Andreas Bretschneider of Germany, Valeri Liukin of the former Soviet Union, and Donnell Whittenburg of the United States to own one, until just quite recently, of only four longstanding most difficult and highest-scoring competition-verified original skills in all of MAG to receive the previous official top score assignment of H (0.8) difficulty from the FIG. At present, Bretschneider, Liukin and Whittenburg successfully competed the Bretschneider on high bar (or Kovac [high bar release skill with one full twist integrated into its somersault portion of the skill—originated by Péter Kovács of Hungary at the 1979 European Championships] double full), Liukin on floor (or triple tucked back), and Whittenburg on rings (or triple piked back dismount) respectively. The FIG had once highly expected Bretschneider to progress his very own skill into the layout position—already named it the Bretschneider 2 on high bar, suggesting it could be given MAG’s new top difficulty of I (0.9) to mirror WAG’s only existing top level floor skill—but he could not do so. This WAG’s only top I (0.9) level skill then—the Moors on floor, or double-twisting double back layout, by Victoria Moors of Canada, who originated it at the 2013 WC.

On August 6, 2016, at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Japan qualified first for the team all-around (AA) event finals, after successes in the 2015 WC. They then solidified their victory two days later at the Rio Olympic Arena with a total score of 274.094. Shirai contributed to his gold medal win on the team event with top scores on floor and vault of 16.133 and 15.633.[11] Shirai did not contribute to other of team finals’ events at the Olympics. Strength of his scores—began with the finals’ best TTY stuck landing, only to better it with “one of his best” floor routines (0.533 above next highest)—enhanced his team mentally to get better with each routine. Japan was sixth with pommel-horse-fall start, fifth after second event, second for topping third/vault but first from fifth. Top-first-2-event scorer Russia had led. Shirai scored team finals’ top vault with best E-score (9.633) despite lower D-score (6.0) than those of Russia’s Denis Ablyazin (6.4) or Japan’s Kōhei Uchimura (6.2). The Japanese men’s AG Olympic team took the gold by beating teams from Russia (271.453) and China (271.122). Led by Uchimura, Japan sent a “fantastic” group: Ryōhei Katō, Shirai (only man here not on their last 2012 Olympic AG team—succeeding Kazuhito Tanaka), Yūsuke Tanaka, Uchimura (captain), and Koji Yamamuro.

Shirai looked to be in good form as he qualified for the individual floor and vault finals. As twice/reigning floor world champion then with routine D-score of 7.6, he was favourite to win floor final but placed disappointing fourth (15.366) with landing troubles in 3 of 6 passes. His team final floor score would beat the winner by ½ a point. If Shirai had included the latest eponymous floor skill, Shirai 3, into routines this quad, he could have achieved an unprecedented 7.7 D-score in the 2013–2016 CoP. Max Whitlock of Great Britain (15.633), the gymnast who Shirai had readily beaten only a year ago in the individual floor final at the 2015 WC by a wide score margin, won gold, and Diego Hypólito (15.533) and Arthur Mariano (15.433), both of host Brazil, were second and third. Increasingly noisy/hostile home crowd boos and jeers during non-Brazilian routines towards the end was disgraceful—some in final shaken/denied chance to excel at Olympics, but Shirai and American Sam Mikulak, who qualified first but ended last, got it the worst. Both said blatantly partial crowd input left them feeling “alone” or “rattled”.[12] Lucky to perform early, Whitlock got spared. Shirai was capable/in-form with sufficient experience (twice world floor champion)—en route to win the individual floor gold, but upsetting as crowd ruined his chances.

In the next day’s individual vault event final, Shirai scored a combined average of 15.449 (15.833 and 15.066 for his two vaults—former becoming the highest-scoring vault of that final), and tied the legendary Marian Drăgulescu of Romania with the third highest numeric score in the event final. The tie-breaker had worked in Shirai’s favour this time, to win him the bronze, edging out Drăgulescu, who was great too and scored the identical combined average but missed making that critical deciding factor for breaking a tie then, which was the single highest numeric E-score (9.466 versus 9.433) on any of their already completed vaults, of a medal. With defending Olympic champion, South Korea’s Yang Hak Seon, out injured, North Korea’s Ri Se Gwang (15.691), whose national AG delegation was banned from competitions in much of 2012 amid continual age falsification violations by their female athletes, won gold while Ablyazin (15.516) successfully defended his silver. In vault qualifying, Shirai, Ukraine’s Igor Radivilov, Drăgulescu and Russia’s Nikita Nagornyy placed in this order third through sixth, but all scored third highest 15.283, though Radivilov and Drăgulescu did incur a 0.1 penalty each for one-foot-out landings on their second vaults, which Shirai used his own’s top E-score (9.500) to place ahead then too.

In Rio, Shirai also successfully originated a second vault, now officially named the Shirai 2 (3½-twisting Yurchenko), which was assigned the second highest D-score of 6.4 in the FIG’s then existing 2013–2016 CoP with the top 7.0 D-score assessed ahead for the Radivilov (front handspring triple [tucked] somersault) originated by the 2012 Olympic vault bronze medallist and vault specialist, Radivilov. Naming credit was given despite him sitting the skill down in the individual vault final, just for it to be totally banned from competition and removed from the next CoP due to a high risk of injury when competing/training the skill. Thus, Shirai now shares honour of owning at least one of only five official top-6.0-D-score skills named after them with the 2012 and 2016 Olympic vault champions, Yang and Ri, both owning two each. These vaults with the highest D-score of 6.0 in the current 2017–2020 CoP are the Shirai 2, Yang Hak Seon, Yang Hak Seon 2, Ri Se Gwang, and Ri Se Gwang 2. In two out of the aforementioned five most difficult vaults, the former two—the Shirai 2 and Yang Hak Seon—only their originators have even successfully completed them at a major competition. Since Shirai originated the Shirai 2 on vault in the individual event finals, he had no plans to soon compete it again after these Olympics.

On February 22–25, 2017, Shirai competed abroad in Melbourne, Australia, at the 2017 Melbourne World Cup, an individual apparatus-only event, with the expanded programme to include more events, which were the horizontal bar (HB), still rings (SR) plus parallel bars (PB). In still rings qualifications, he placed tenth and last with low execution decreasing enough the combined total to not qualify for its event final. In parallel bars qualifications, Shirai placed third, and qualified for this event final. Despite falling in his routine during the horizontal bar qualifications, Shirai finished in fourth place due to errors made by his rivals, and also ended up in its event final. In the individual parallel bars event final, Shirai won a silver medal by getting the second highest execution of 8.433 and 14.433 combined score. A Chinese gymnast, Zou Jingyuan (15.166), won the gold medal while Ferhat Arican of Turkey (13.566) captured the bronze. In the individual horizontal bar event final, Shirai managed to secure the gold medal with a combined score of 13.933, thanks to the other of his second highest E-score of 8.333, and even more errors made by other competitors. In this final, Mitchell Morgans of Australia (13.400) and one of Shirai’s fellow Japanese, Yusuke Saito (13.333), had claimed their respective silver and bronze medals.

Still riding on some of the momentum from all that preparation for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Shirai was in good competition form. In the individual floor and vault qualifying, Shirai placed first and qualified for his two specialty finals on his seasoned routines/skills. In the individual floor event final, Shirai easily won the gold with his extreme score of 14.700 largely because of his routine’s highest score number of 7.2 in difficulty—the second highest only 6.5 among all the finalists. This is also the first competition where Shirai fully integrated the Shirai 3 on floor with D-score of H (0.8) he originated back in 2015 into his competitive floor routines. His passes—1) RO–BH–Shirai 3, 2) RO–BH–Ri Jong Song, 3) RO–BH–2½ punch 2½, 4) front full punch Shirai 2, 5) RO–BH–3½ punch full, and 6) RO–BH–Shirai. Mu Jile of China (14.466) captured the silver medal while Arican (14.033) won his second bronze down under. Lastly, in the individual vault event final, Shirai won the second gold medal of the competition with the average combined score of 14.916 because of the two highest execution numbers of 9.500 and 9.533 he posted in this apparatus final. Christopher Remkes of Australia (14.883) took home the silver while another of Shirai’s countryman, Wataru Tanigawa (14.566), captured the bronze.

Like in Toyota City, that early lower-profile FIG World Cup competition also holds some significance because in Melbourne, Shirai had successfully completed still yet one more original element—his sixth in total—to then be officially named the Shirai 3 on vault automatically. Thus, he currently has more skills bearing his name than any other male gymnast in history, and second only to Svetlana Khorkina of Russia, who holds the all-time record of having nine original skills adopt her name across all four apparatuses in WAG. The Shirai 3 on vault (or aka “full on–double full off” in practice) was given a D-score of 5.4 in the 2017–2020 CoP. The vault technically has a RO–full-twisting BH (Scherbo—vault platform entry skill; originated by Vitaly Scherbo of the former Soviet Union, then Unified Team, and finally Belarus early in the 1990s) entry onto platform into a back layout double twist off it after that—rare but skill can also be called a “double-twisting Scherbo”. To incorporate the Shirai 3 on floor into the existing floor routine, Shirai began initially by swapping it into the starting position as the first pass with the Ri Jong Song staying as the second pass executed immediately after. To reflect his higher D-score in the change, the rest of his floor routine was adjusted accordingly too. Yet to be realised, the progression’s next vault in line—RO–full-twisting BH onto platform into 2½ twist off it (or aka “full on–2½ off”)—was assessed in advance, and assigned its 5.8 D-score value, which many think it to be too low since the Li Xiao Peng on vault (or aka “½ on–2½ off” in practice; originated by the great Chinese gymnast Li Xiao Peng in the 2000s) had already long been given a D-score of 5.8 too. “Full on–2½ off” has by nature more twists, and thus is more complex/harder to execute—should have a higher D-score.

In October 2017, Shirai showed he retained more of the Olympic form when he competed at the 2017 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Montreal, Canada. No team events were held, as it is customary since 2005 at the WC in the year right after the Olympics. Shirai would eventually win three medals on a full competition programme that included owning a routine on his last holdout event of pommel horse (PH). He had then become eligible for the individual AA competition in Montreal, winning the first world AA medal (bronze) behind Xiao Ruoteng (86.933) and Lin Chaopan (86.488), both of China.[13] Shirai’s combined total of 86.431 has 15.733 on floor, 13.433 on pommel horse, 13.666 on still rings, 15.000 on vault, 14.633 on parallel bars, and 13.966 on high bar. With the top numbers on floor and vault among AA finalists, Shirai had also easily defended the individual world floor title from two years ago when the WC were last held with a final score of 15.633,[14] out-tumbling the silver medallist, Artem Dolgopyat of Israel—just managing a score of 14.533—by over a point. Shirai’s final unassailable victory margin of 1.1 became their widest one yet at the WC, outdistancing himself from his rivals even more than the 2015 performance did. His passes stayed consistent after originating the Shirai 3 on floor.

Shirai also qualified second for the vault’s individual event finals with an average combined total of 14.949 but subsequently won his first world vault title by putting up the highest average combined scores of 14.900, 15.200 and 14.600 for his first and second numbers respectively,[15] in a very exciting/close last round of competition. After the Olympics, Shirai returned to compete both of his usual vaults—the Shirai or Shirai-Kim, and Driggs—where he posted the top E-score of 9.600, and 9.400. His vaults’ D-scores had since been lowered from 6.0 and 5.6 (2013–2015) in the last 2013–2016 quad to 5.6 and 5.2 (2017–2018) in the FIG’s next 2017–2020 CoP. Shirai did manage to win with the absolute slimmest of victory margin by just 0.001 after the 2012 Olympic bronze medallist on vault, event specialist Igor Radivilov of Ukraine, came up short and finished with the closest possible second highest average combined score of 14.899. Shirai did also get a little help when the top qualifier and 2012 Olympic champion on vault, South Korea’s Yang Hak Seon, withdrew with a hamstring injury after outscoring Shirai by a significant margin of 0.334 with the average combined score of 15.283 in qualifying, which was three times more than the margin of any two other qualifiers. These score differences were only about 0.1.

It is also worth noting that Shirai has executed two identical vaults as he has done since this event debut at the 2013 WC on every individual vault event, even though he has successfully completed more difficult and higher-scoring vaults in competition—specifically the Shirai 2 and Shirai 3 with the former heavily contributing to his bronze medal win at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and latter slightly less his gold in the individual vault event final at the 2017 Melbourne World Cup. Like D-scores of other selected vaults across the board, the ones for the Shirai 2 and Shirai 3 were also adjusted to 5.6 and 5.2 respectively in this 2017–2020 quad. Also, Hidetaka Miyachi of Japan took advantage of injuries on German Andreas Bretschneider, who was beaten to the punch here in 2017, originating the first double-twisting layout Kovac, or now officially named the Miyachi on high bar—only skill then given the new top level I (0.9) D-score value, and created in advance specially for it by the FIG—successfully first on home soil at the All-Japan Apparatus Championships in Takasaki, Japan, before he petitioned governing body to officially verify skill completion and name adoption. I (0.9), the new top D-score, was created then to assist an existing MAG scoring system more accurately reflect the very extreme D-score of the Miyachi on high bar, which was verified here at these 2017 WC then—as a result, it did also update the MAG scoring system levels again mirror WAG.

On March 3, 2018, Shirai started this competition season for 2018 when he accepted the invitation to participate in the American Cup FIG Individual All-Around World Cup 2018 or 2018 American Cup in Hoffman Estates (suburb of Chicago), United States. In the individual AA-only competition, he placed sixth, achieving a combined total of 81.498 despite posting top floor and vault scores, the signature apparatuses, of 15.066 and 14.966 respectively, and second highest tying Yul Moldauer of the United States on parallel bars with 14.500 behind leader Petro Pakhniuk of Ukraine with 14.933. Each of Shirai’s scores, in particular on pommel horse, was relatively weaker when compared to all other finalists. Hovering sufficiently lower, Shirai’s numbers on each of the apparatuses were a 11.100 on pommel horse (lowest on that apparatus with top number posted nearly three full points higher), 13.700 on still rings, and 12.166 on the horizontal bar. As defending, and eventual, champion of the competition, Moldauer scored an 85.964, outscoring Shirai by a fair margin of almost 4½ points because Moldauer was able to achieve one of the top three scores on every apparatus—the highest scorer on still rings, third highest on vault, tie for the second highest on parallel bars, and second highest on the remaining apparatuses.

On April 14, 2018, Shirai competed at this spring’s last FIG-sanctioned World Cup competition with home advantage at the FIG Individual All-Around World Cup 2018 or 2018 Tokyo World Cup in Tokyo, Japan. In this group of competing gymnasts at different experience levels from many countries across several world continents of Europe, Asia and the Americas, Shirai won gold on the individual all-around event, his very first all-around gold medal at an FIG competition with a combined score of 86.064. Scores from each apparatus were 15.200 on floor, 13.533 on pommel horse, 13.766 on still rings, 14.966 on vault, 14.466 on parallel bars, and 14.133 on the horizontal bar. Among all his scores, Shirai posted one of the top three values on all apparatuses too with the highest numbers on floor, pommel horse and vault, plus second highest on parallel bars and the horizontal bar behind the values of 14.533 posted by Russia’s Artur Dalaloyan on parallel bars and 14.500 by Sam Mikulak of the United States on the horizontal bar, plus third highest too on rings behind those scores of 14.366 and 14.300 posted by Dalaloyan and Wataru Tanigawa of Japan. In the end, respectable efforts by first-time winners, Tanigawa and Mikulak, managed to win silver and bronze with respective combined scores of 84.399 and 84.098. At local 2018 event, Shirai also debuted new floor routine with one pass less (left out the Ri Jong Song pass) but kept similar D-score by changing its third pass to a harder combination one with higher connection bonuses. This 7.1-D-score routine (his last was 7.2) could slow the body’s wear and tear in training or competition too. The passes here—1) RO–BH–Shirai 3, 2) RO–BH–1½ punch Shirai 2 punch full, 3) RO–BH–3½ punch double full, 4) RO–BH–2½ punch 2½, and 5) RO–BH–Shirai.

On May 19–20, 2018, Shirai competed at the lower-profile non-FIG individual all-around-only event, also at home—primarily for the Japanese coaches to help assess the level of fitness and preparation of each local gymnast hoping to be included onto the national team for namely the WC—at the 2018 NHK Trophy in Tokyo, Japan. Although it is not an event organised by the FIG, Japan still requires participation with favourable results at the competition as a prerequisite in order to be considered for the Japanese team at the next WC. If an athlete had to miss the event but still want represent Japan then, he or she must secure a waiver, which is rarely granted. Shirai won the silver medal here with a combined score of 257.895 including floor’s top score of 15.433 as well as third highest of 14.833 on vault, just behind Takumi Sato—only competed on floor, rings and vault—and vault specialist Hidenobu Yonekura—only competed on his specialty event. For Shirai’s other apparatuses, those scores were 13.600 on pommel horse, 13.366 on rings, 14.433 on parallel bars, and 14.066 on high bar respectively. Gold medal went to the legend Kōhei Uchimura, who had come from behind to win with the combined score of 258.629—it would include the top score of 14.966 on high bar, and second highest of 14.633 on floor.[16]

On October 25–November 3, 2018, Shirai competed at the 2018 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Doha, Qatar—the first ever WC held in the Middle East. Although he lost some form in competition and was thus less successful this year than he was in 2017, his limited preparation still got him one silver and two bronzes. Shirai contributed to the bronze medal win for the Japanese team event on three apparatuses—floor exercise, vault and the horizontal bar where he scored a 14.933, 14.966 and 13.966 respectively. Shirai qualified for the individual finals too on the all-around, floor exercise and vault. During the individual all-around final, Shirai was unable to replicate a comparable level of success as the 2017 bronze medal win, and he finally managed to place just seventh from a total combined score of 84.531. Scores on each apparatus—14.900 on floor, 12.533 on pommel horse, 13.666 on still rings, 15.166 on vault, 14.266 on parallel bars, and 14.000 on the horizonal bar. In the individual floor and vault event finals, Shirai was likewise unable to defend both the 2017 gold medals, and could only manage the respective silver and bronze. In the individual floor exercise apparatus final, Shirai had posted a 14.866 behind a much-improved gold medallist Artur Dalaloyan of Russia, who was also their 2018 individual AA event champion that marginally outscored Shirai with a 14.900 in a cleanly executed routine. Shirai’s floor routine with a D-score of 6.8 was a little lower than usual, but still more than the 6.2 by Dalaloyan, who did manage a sufficiently higher E-score of 8.700 than Shirai’s 8.066 to outscore Shirai in the combined total. The passes: 1) RO–BH–Ri Jong Song, 2) front full punch Shirai 2, 3) RO–BH–1½ punch 1½, 4) RO–BH–Shirai, 5) RO–BH–3½ punch full, and 6) RO–BH–triple full. In the individual vault apparatus final, Shirai posted a comparatively smaller average combined score of 14.675 due to the lower D-scores assigned to all of the vaults he completed, particularly the second, behind eventual silver medallist Dalaloyan (14.883), plus gold medallist Ri Se Gwang of North Korea (14.933), who is the 2016 Olympic vault champion. Shirai’s two vaults had lower D-scores of good significance then—5.6 and 5.2—if compared to the 2018 gold-medal-winning duo of 6.0 each.

It may be appropriate to remind that Shirai competed a significantly simplified floor routine, at times even feeling like it was prepared in a rush, for his standards in the individual floor final. D-scores of Shirai’s floor routines till then this quad were always consistently scored 7.2 or 7.1 previously, but at these WC, it was reduced to 6.8. Although that D-score was still the highest among all finalists, the opening loss of up to 0.4 from the routine’s combined total was sufficient to effectively lose the gold, but won him silver instead in 2018. Winner Dalaloyan, even with a comparably lower 6.2 difficulty routine, did outscore Shirai in execution but just by 0.034 in the end. It may also be worth informing that Shirai always executed the same two vaults—first a “Yurchenko”–then a forward-entry “Tsukahara”—in each individual vault event final at all but one of the FIG’s 2013–2018 major events (every WC but not 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where he captured bronze after he upgraded to the Shirai 2 on vault, or 3½-twisting Yurchenko, for the backward-entry skill), competing better generally from one year to the next. Shirai had continued improving on the standings in the individual vault finals every year. In 2013–2015, Shirai placed fourth, fourth and seventh while in 2017–2018, he won the gold and bronze medals.

On April 7, 2019, Shirai began his season competing at the FIG Individual All-Around World Cup 2019 or 2019 Tokyo World Cup in Tokyo, Japan. Like in 2018, Shirai was supposed to start competition at the 2019 American Cup, but withdrew to treat a left ankle injury,[17] which he sustained about a week before he started travelling. Due to the injury, Shirai simplified certain skills in his routines for the competition here in Tokyo, which became especially noticeable when he performed on floor—his strongest signature event—as he recycled, using portions of his past routines. Changes included starting his floor routine with a RO–BH–3½ twist–punch double twist opening pass instead of the Shirai 3, one of two hardest floor skills in MAG, and ending with only a triple twist last pass instead of the Shirai, his infamous quad twist. In the end, Shirai failed to defend his gold medal from last year, but managed to capture bronze with the combined score of 82.964, despite still recovering from injury. The 2018 bronze medallist, Sam Mikulak of the United States (86.599), improved his standings, and won gold. Japan’s Wataru Tanigawa (85.665) defended his silver. Sport analyst Tim Daggett opined Shirai as “man, myth, legend—capable of doing...many things...people thought were...literally impossible before...” in gymnastics.[18]

On April 26–28, 2019, Shirai competed at the 2019 All-Japan AA Championships, one of two closely held AA-only events in Chofu, Tokyo, Japan. Shirai had qualified for event finals in 22nd place, finishing in 30th. Shirai also managed only one score in the top three on any apparatus, second highest on floor (14.533) behind Kazuki Minami (14.633), who just competed on floor. This event’s respective gold, silver and bronze medallists—Kakeru Tanigawa with a combined score of 84.699, Kazuma Kaya with a combined score of 84.664, and Kazuyuki Takeda with a combined score of 84.498—had Tanigawa managing the second highest score for pommel horse while Takeda had achieved the third highest for still rings too. After assessing their winning scores, it shows there is much to be desired in being able to post numbers that are above average for every apparatus. Shirai’s remaining scores in that final—12.900 on pommel horse, 12.800 on still rings, 14.166 on vault, 13.733 on parallel bars, 11.300 on the horizontal bar, and 79.432 for the total AA combined score. Injury had persisted to adversely affect the recent competition performances, and thus reflected in the results. Event number differences between top apparatus scores and Shirai’s were particularly wide on pommel horse, still rings and the horizontal bar.

On May 18–19, 2019, Shirai competed at the 2019 NHK Trophy, also in Chofu, Tokyo, Japan—repeating his 2018 participation at this AA-only event. Due to lingering injury issues with the left ankle, he was unable to perform as well in the competition in comparison to most others, which would also include his performance here last year. Shirai placed 23rd with a 243.794 combined score. He was unable to achieve a top three score on any of the apparatuses, not even on his signatures of floor or vault. Shirai’s scores on each respective apparatus were 14.500 on floor, 12.533 on pommel horse, 12.800 on still rings, 14.566 on vault, 14.066 on parallel bars, and 13.066 on high bar. Kakeru Tanigawa (254.363), Wataru Tanigawa (254.128) and Kazuma Kaya (254.126), who won their gold, silver and bronze,[19] were unable too to score, if at all, more than only one of the top three numbers on any apparatus, which may also indicate that none of their 2019 gymnasts was able to do particularly well this year at this competition—Kakeru Tanigawa was only able to score the second highest number (14.733) on floor, Wataru Tanigawa was also just able to make the third highest (14.866) on vault, and just like Shirai, Kazuma Kaya was likewise not able to post a top three number on any one of the apparatuses at this event too.

On June 21–23, 2019, Shirai competed at the 2019 All-Japan Apparatus Championships in Takasaki, Japan, hoping he would do well enough to secure a spot on the Japanese national team, and compete at the 2019 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. It was ultimately not meant to be his year though. Shirai had qualified into the individual event finals specifically on floor exercise, vault and the horizontal bar in second, fourth and sixth respectively. In these finals, he had finished in third (14.900), fifth (14.433) and eighth (11.200) place, respectively for each of these three apparatuses too. Finishing ahead of Shirai on floor exercise were Kazuki Minami with a total score of 15.033, and Naoto Hayasaka with a total score of 15.000. Their top finisher on vault was Keitoro Okubo, posting the average combined score of 15.233, and the winner of the horizontal bar was Hirohito Kahama with a total score of 14.766. Shirai’s floor D-score numbers had remained on top among all the finalists. However, his execution needed some additional work, and could have been cleaner, which was thus reflected on the routine’s E-score. Shirai’s vault D-score values were comparatively lesser—only one with the lowest 5.2—and needed higher base numbers before he could seriously challenge the top vaulters.

For the first time since Shirai’s international debut at the WC in 2013, he had failed to qualify for the Japanese national artistic gymnastics team, and participate in the 2019 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, which was held on October 4–13, 2019. Shirai’s performance was slowed for most of the 2019 season by a very stubborn injury to the left ankle, and thus unable to perform/compete his best at the 2019 All-Japan Apparatus Championships—results there and at the 2019 NHK Trophy determined gymnasts’ eligibility to join team Japan at the 2019 WC. Shirai’s best chance was to secure one of two spots available for individual event specialists—namely on his two signature apparatuses of floor exercise and vault. However, he was just able to place third on floor exercise, plus fifth on vault to miss qualifying for these WC, resulting in his inability to defend 2018’s team bronze, and individual silver on floor and bronze on vault. As Shirai was not the only high-profile absentee, Japan had sent a fairly inexperienced men’s team with their most decorated member, Kōhei Uchimura, also missing from the 2019 WC due to injury. Uchimura was struggling and attempting then still a return to past winning ways since tearing his, also left, ankle ligaments in qualifying on AA’s vault at the 2017 WC. Without Japan’s full team in Stuttgart, the men’s competition was dominated mostly by gymnasts from Russia or other former Soviet states with an odd individual final being won by an athlete from other countries. This individual AA event’s defending champion for men was Artur Dalaloyan of Russia, placing second on the individual AA and vault events behind countryman Nikita Nagornyy. Led by Simone Biles, women’s competition was dominated by Americans. Japan’s top female gymnast, Mai Murakami, was unable to defend the 2018 individual AA silver and floor bronze she won after she missed the required pre-WC 2019 NHK Trophy due to a back injury.

Due to all implications of 2019–20's COVID-19 pandemic, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Japanese prime minister, Shinzō Abe, announced in March 2020 together through a joint statement that the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, would not take place on the original dates of July 24–August 9, 2020, citing public health concerns, and was postponed a year then to happen on July 23–August 8, 2021.[20] The IOC updated Olympics will be cancelled if new dates untenable. As of this time, no one knows for sure if the national teams of Japan or any country could still send teams consisting of familiar people a year later. Athletes train hard to accurately manage peaks in their performances following four-year-cycle timetables while targeting specific periods for the Olympics too, but because of this delay, unlike Shirai, highly decorated athletes—namely Biles and Uchimura who are already considered by most to be the greatest gymnasts of all time—might simply retire. The Japanese men’s national AG team earlier qualified a full four-member squad for the Olympic AA team event by capturing the team bronze medal at the 2018 WC, where Shirai contributed three scores in team total—floor, vault, and high bar. Their women also qualified after top nine result in team qualifications at the 2019 WC.[21]