"The Twist Prince," as the 19-year-old Shirai is known in Japan, will be making his Olympic debut at Rio de Janeiro, where the Japanese are aiming to win their first Olympic team gold since 2004 in Athens. And like many young Japanese athletes in Rio, Shirai will be hoping to set the stage for Tokyo 2020 with a strong performance. TOKYO (AP) " Kenzo Shirai wants to add a new twist to an evolving story, and help Japan regain the men's gymnastics team title it once dominated at the Olympics. At the 2015 world championships in Glasgow, Shirai won the floor exercise with a margin of victory that was the largest among all male event finals. He followed that up with a triple twisting front somersault and a triple-twisting Yurchenko on vault to establish himself as one of the sport's most talented twisters.

Source: New Zealand Herald June 28, 2016 07:18 UTC