The easy reality of life is eventually time strikes on and essentially the most well-known athletes of the day will ultimately fade into obscurity. Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda was a type of athletes from the Fifties and Sixties whose title is essentially unknown to most followers. However her legacy was so impactful, Keiko is without doubt one of the most vital gymnasts of not simply her period, however of the complete twentieth century. Tanaka-Ikeda’s athletic accomplishments have been extraordinary and her life story was as equally compelling.
In an period the place communist nations gained 99% of the medals, Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda was answerable for the opposite 1%.
In the identical approach that america has New York (the area) and New York (the town), the identical is true for Hiroshima, Japan. Keiko was born within the Hiroshima Prefecture (province) and grew up in a comparatively small metropolis that was situated 36 miles away from Hiroshima, the massive metropolis which shares a reputation with the complete area. When Japan escalated its battle on December seventh, 1941 and introduced the nation into direct battle with america, British Empire and the Netherlands, Keiko was only one month previous her eighth birthday.
Tanaka-Ikeda was spared the worst of World Struggle II by dwelling in a small regional metropolis that had skilled little to no bombing raids. Her World Struggle II experiences was spent taking ballet lessons and dwelling a considerably regular civilian life. However that was all shattered within the ultimate weeks of the battle through the atomic bombing of Hiroshima (the town). It is without doubt one of the most controversial, extensively recognized and defining moments of World Struggle II, if not in the complete historical past of warfare.
Keiko instantly misplaced her uncle within the blast. Her father who went to seek for him the following day and would quickly die from radiation publicity. On the time Keiko was 12 years outdated.
Like most gymnasts of her technology, Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda began the game comparatively late. At first she competed in swimming, tennis, volleyball and all kinds of occasions in Monitor & Subject. It was by an opportunity encounter when she was enjoying on a males’s excessive bar {that a} gymnastics teacher observed her and satisfied her to take up the game. Tanaka-Ikeda grew to become a gymnast at 16 years outdated and inside three months had develop into a regional champion over all of Hiroshima.
This type of dominance so rapidly after becoming a member of the game and beginning gymnastics at such a late age was surprisingly widespread on this time interval. It could happen continuously throughout the main European packages and Keiko was hardly the exception. Though it ought to be famous that on this period of gymnastics ballet coaching was a vital a part of the game and Tanaka-Ikeda got here from a ballet background. This was a vital issue to her fast stand up the ranks.
Keiko skilled alongside the boys. When her grandmother watched Keiko carry out gymnastics for the primary time, she scolded her for taking over a sport that exposed a lot of her physique. Keiko responded by saying “what’s flawed with a woman spreading her legs?”
Inside 5 years of taking over the game Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda was successfully ranked eighth greatest on this planet on the 1954 World Championships. That is an period the place the Soviets have been allowed to make use of eight gymnasts within the All-Round and nation limits didn’t exist. Nor have been there nation limits in Occasion Finals. Keiko didn’t merely win a medal in Occasion Finals, she took the gold medal on beam.
Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda gained a gold medal in a person occasion on the 1954 World Championships. At this level she had solely 5 years of whole expertise within the sport and I couldn’t discover any information of her having prior expertise in even low-level worldwide competitors earlier than this time. It’s a rare achievement for a gymnast to go from the novice degree to a gold medalist in solely 5 years. However Tanaka-Ikeda most likely might have reached the worldwide elite degree even faster than that if she had been allowed to compete at an earlier age.
Previous to 1954 Japan didn’t ship ladies to compete in main gymnastics competitions. In 1954 Japan didn’t even ship a full staff to the World Championships. As a substitute, Japan despatched simply two ladies to the 1954 World Championships and this was the debut look of Japanese ladies’s gymnastics. If there had been competitions accessible and open Japanese ladies from 1950 to 1953, Keiko most likely might have discovered success in any of these years as effectively.
Her #8 rating within the All-Round and gold medal on beam on the 1954 World Championships makes it possible that she might have been a robust All-Arounder a minimum of just a few years prior. Probably turning into an Olympic-caliber athlete in as little as two to a few years after selecting up the game. Tanaka-Ikeda was merely that proficient.
Surprisingly sufficient, Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda is each the very first pioneer of Japanese ladies’s gymnastics, in addition to its solely Corridor of Famer. The Japanese ladies’s program was in such infancy at this level in historical past that whereas Keiko completed eighth within the All-Round, the following highest rating Japanese gymnast had completed 93rd. She did it whereas Japan’s amenities weren’t as sturdy because the dominant ladies’s gymnastics packages of Jap Europe. Keiko is alleged to have “skilled on grime” within the early phases of her profession.
The subsequent main competitors for Keiko could be the 1956 Olympics which have been slated to be held in Australia. On the time barely a decade had handed for the reason that finish of World Struggle II and Japanese athletes could be visiting a rustic that had fought straight towards Japan. Australians spent a lot of World Struggle II watching the Japanese advance to inside hanging vary of their nation.
To the Individuals, it was a battle on the opposite facet of the globe. For the Australians, it had been a battle fought on their again doorstep. On a per capita foundation, Australia had suffered practically twice as many deaths as america.
The connection between Japan and Australian represented a pivotal second in Olympic historical past the place two key adversaries of World Struggle II would play the position of host and invited visitor on the Olympics. Despite the fact that 1956 was the third Olympics for the reason that finish of World Struggle II, this was truly the primary time Germany or Japan would compete at an Olympics being held inside a rustic that was a member of the Allies throughout World Struggle II.
In the course of the 1956 Olympics Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda had an anti-Japanese slur levied her approach. It was a narrative she would recite repeatedly for the remainder of her life, but additionally highlights a personality trait each time she retold the story. What Keiko would so usually point out when highlighting this incident, was that the spectator who ushered a slur in the direction of her was a mom who had misplaced her son within the battle.
When studying interviews of well-known gymnasts, you’ll be able to at all times get a way of their persona as the identical theme reappears time and time once more. Even whereas the interviews have been held a long time aside. For Keiko, there have been two themes that have been readily obvious. The primary is she had a behavior of creating legendary quips and witty remarks, usually towards authority figures making an attempt to criticize her.
However the second theme was that Tanaka-Ikeda had a bent to worth empathy and be conscious of the struggling of others. What higher particular person to grasp the angle of a grieving mom than a daughter who had misplaced her father in the exact same battle?
On the 1956 Olympics Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda completed 4th on Ground Train and practically missed out on a medal.
Beforehand I said that in an period the place communist nations gained 99% of the medals, Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda was answerable for the opposite 1%. Whereas that is considerably of a joking exaggeration, there may be numerous fact to this remark. Previous to the key reforms and rule adjustments of the mid-Seventies, solely 11 medals had been gained by non-Jap Bloc gymnasts within the particular person occasions on the Olympics and World Championships.
1 medal was gained by Cathy Rigby
1 medal was gained by Evy Berggren
1 medal was gained by Taniko Nakamura
2 medals have been gained by Ann-Sofi Pettersson
6 medals have been gained by Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda
Keiko single-handedly gained extra medals than all the opposite non-Jap Bloc gymnasts put collectively. Within the All-Round she was the very best scoring non-Jap Bloc gymnast in each single competitors she attended from 1954 to 1966 in what was in the end a 13 yr streak. In that very same time interval, she had extra top-10 finishes within the All-Round than all the opposite non-Jap Bloc gymnasts put collectively.
On the 1956 Olympics Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda was the one gymnast within the top-20 of the All-Round who wasn’t from the Jap Bloc.
However the place issues get freakishly absurd with Keiko is how usually she positioned contained in the top-6 of the All-Round and Occasion Finals. In gymnastics the “top-6” shouldn’t be precisely an arbitrary cut-off as that’s the cut-off for being a prime seed in a contemporary All-Round Finals, in addition to the cut-off for qualifying into Occasion Finals in Olympic competitors from 1968 to 1980. Because of this, gymnastics historical past junkies choose utilizing the “top-6” cut-off to award retroactive appearances in Occasion Finals to gymnasts like Keiko who predate the 1968 rule change the place Occasion Finals was separated from the staff competitors. Thus creating the idea of an “look” in Occasion Finals.
When counting the variety of top-6 finishes in any of the 5 particular person occasions from 1954 to 1966 amongst gymnasts who weren’t members of the Jap Bloc:
15 instances: Keiko Ikeda
3 instances: Ann-Sofi Pettersson
1 time: Toshiko Shirasu
1 time: Evy Berggren
1 time: Hiroko Ikenada
1 time: Taki Shibuya
1 time: Taniko Nakamura
1 time: Yasuko Furuyama
The statistics make it clear, on this time interval essentially the most profitable gymnasts have been unequivocally the Jap Bloc and Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda.
However Keiko wasn’t only a nice gymnast from outdoors the Jap Bloc, she was top-of-the-line gymnasts of the day. Keiko gained a medal within the particular person occasions in each World Championships she attended from 1954 to 1966. Tanaka-Ikeda was an extremely effectively rounded gymnast having gained a medal in 5 of 6 occasions. The one occasion she by no means medaled in was vault.
Maybe essentially the most spectacular side of Keiko’s resume was the eight medals she gained on the World Championships, six of which got here within the particular person occasions.
In Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda’s period it was considerably more durable to win a medal on the World Championships resulting from this occasion being held solely as soon as each 4 years again then. For this reason there are only a few gymnasts from the pre-1978 growth of the World Championships within the all-time rankings for many medals on the World Championships.
It additionally ought to be famous that of the 5 most embellished gymnasts within the historical past of the World Championships, 4 of them competed within the Nineties or later when the game had as soon as once more expanded the World Championships to be held in each non-Olympic yr.
With these particulars in thoughts, Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda is definitely some of the embellished medalists of her time interval and ranks fifth amongst gymnasts within the pre-Korbut period for many medals on the World Championships with eight whole. Her six particular person medals on the World Championships are notably noteworthy. Vera Caslavska who famously gained a gold medal in each particular person occasion on the Olympics and has a legit declare to being the very best gymnast in historical past is forward of Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda by just one medal on this statistic.
Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda has the identical variety of particular person medals on the World Championships as Alicia Sacramone. That is unbelievable to consider as a result of Sacramone was inducted into the Worldwide Gymnastics Corridor of Fame on the premise of her success on the World Championships. Not solely does Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda match up equally with Alicia Sacramone, however Keiko competed in an period the place the World Championships have been held simply as soon as each 4 years. Alicia competed in an period the place they’re held 3 times each 4 years.
However for Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda her profession goes past the medals she gained. She gave beginning twice throughout her profession, continued to coach whereas pregnant, and by no means missed a significant competitors. Tokyo was slated to host the 1964 Olympics in what could be Japan’s most vital Olympics in its historical past. However in 1963 the Japanese gymnastics program was alarmed that Tanaka-Ikeda, their most vital gymnast on the ladies’s facet was pregnant and was mentioned to have scolded her.
Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda responded by saying “I’ll give beginning, and I’ll win.”
On the 1964 Olympics Keiko was competing in her third Olympics and led the Japanese program to a bronze medal within the staff competitors. The victory was all of the extra particular because it had been gained on Japanese soil. Keiko’s subsequent main competitors could be the 1966 World Championships. Right here she gave the best efficiency of her profession by successful a medal within the Crew Competitors, All-Round, and Uneven Bars. Paradoxically she completed 4th on steadiness beam, it was the one time in her complete profession that she didn’t medal on this occasion on the World Championships.
On the uneven bars Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda would share the rostrum with Taniko Nakamura who completed one spot behind her within the standings. It was the one medal of Taniko Nakamura’s profession in a person occasion. Except for Taniko Nakamura’s 1966 bronze medal on the uneven bars, each different medal Japan has in ladies’s gymnastics within the twentieth century was gained by Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda.
Japan’s ladies’s gymnastics program at present has three medals within the staff competitors. All three medals have been groups led by Tanaka-Ikeda. She is answerable for all however one medal Japan gained previous to 2009 and Japan’s solely Olympic medal previous to the 2021 Olympics.
When Keiko competed on the 1966 World Championships, ladies’s gymnastics was in the midst of a revolution. Within the months after the 1964 Olympics a 15-year outdated Larissa Petrik defeated Larissa Latynina, the main Soviet gymnast of the day. The outcome despatched shockwaves via the game and virtually instantly each main program started prioritizing younger gymnasts within the hope of discovering the following Larissa Petrik. Opposite to well-liked perception, the rise of the little-girl period predated Nadia Comaneci by practically a decade.
It was truly the 1965 to 1968 period of girls’s gymnastics the place the typical age of a feminine gymnast was experiencing its most fast decline. All around the world longstanding gymnasts who had a number of Olympic appearances have been being pushed out of the game. Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda grew to become another casualty in an period the place the established veterans have been quickly being purged out of the game to make approach for a brand new period of gymnastics.
As quickly as Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda disappeared, Japan’s ladies’s gymnastics program disappeared alongside along with her. Maybe Japan couldn’t do with out its most profitable gymnast and truest pioneer. Maybe Japan was completed in by its personal lack of innovation as this system didn’t adapt to the brand new “little lady” period of girls’s gymnastics that may outline the game within the Seventies.
When Keiko retired it might take Japan 43 years to win one other medal, 51 years to win one other gold medal, and 55 years to win one other Olympic medal because the nation waited for a brand new technology of gymnasts to fill the footwear of Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda. And when such a technology did come to fruition, it was led by Mai Murakami who introduced Japan one other Olympic medal after an absence spanning greater than 50 years.
However Mai Murakami didn’t simply deliver again Olympic glory to Japan’s ladies’s gymnastics program, she did so on the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the exact same metropolis Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda gained an Olympic medal at in 1964.
Nice gymnasts are remembered for his or her medals, the context behind the medals they gained, but additionally the best way they advance the game via their eponymous expertise. In gymnastics Natalia Yurchenko has by far essentially the most well-known eponymous ability and it’s a query of who has the second most well-known ability. Whereas there are numerous candidates for this title, one ability that’s within the dialogue for it’s the wolf flip.
The wolf flip has confirmed to be some of the ubiquitous strikes of the 2010s and 2020s. However the ability was equally as well-liked with beam staff of the Sixties and Seventies to the purpose the place many of the gymnasts who gained medals on beam within the late Sixties to early Seventies had wolf turns of their routines. The wolf flip is reasonably distinctive in gymnastics historical past because it peaked in reputation in two distinct eras, 35 years aside. Only a few expertise have been as well-liked throughout so many various a long time and totally different eras because the wolf flip.
Within the early Nineteen Eighties even Olga Mostepanova did a wolf flip. There’s maybe no different ability in gymnastics historical past that’s related to such all kinds of well-known gymnasts because the wolf flip resulting from its hyperlinks with each the Sixties and continued reputation to today. Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda not solely carried out the wolf flip in her time, however she is the earliest recognized instance of any gymnast performing a real wolf flip based mostly on surviving footage.
If Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda wasn’t really the primary to do it as a result of different gymnasts could have completed it however footage of their routines didn’t survive, on the very least Keiko was the primary nice beam employee to embrace this ability. Keiko set the usual that each one the highest contenders for a medal on the steadiness beam carried out wolf flip as if it have been a modern factor.
The wolf flip is without doubt one of the most well-known strikes in gymnastics historical past, and Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda can appropriately be known as “The Grandmother of the Wolf Flip.”
In 2002 the Worldwide Gymnastics Corridor of Fame made the choice to induct Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda. This was a extremely symbolic choice as on the time the Corridor of Fame was nonetheless in its infancy. Again in 2002 solely 12 ladies had beforehand been inducted into the Corridor of Fame. By making Keiko one among its earliest inductions, it amounted to a declaration that the Corridor of Fame felt Keiko’s profession was so extraordinary, she deserved to be on the prime of the record.
After analyzing her profession, it’s my opinion that the Corridor of Fame acquired it proper and inducting Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda so early in its historical past was top-of-the-line choices the Corridor of Fame ever made. Some gymnasts are pioneers of their respective program, whereas others advance that exact same program by being their most profitable gymnast ever. Gymnasts are virtually at all times one or the opposite.
However in Keiko’s case, she wasn’t one or the opposite. She was each.
Connie Caruccio is the unique American gymnast, however its biggest gymnast was Simone Biles. The identical is true for Queenie Judd and Jessica Gadirova of the British program. For the Soviets, it’s Maria Tyshko and Larissa Latynina. Being a pioneer shouldn’t be the identical as being essentially the most profitable gymnast in program historical past.
That’s the story for 99% of gymnasts, however as was the case earlier than, Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda is the opposite 1%. At all times being that lone exception. Keiko not solely led Japan to its debut in main competitors, she led this system to its first gold medal and its first Olympic medal. Tanaka-Ikeda then spent the following fifty years being essentially the most profitable gymnast in program historical past.
There’s maybe no gymnast in historical past who did a lot for a single program as what Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda did for Japan.
Keiko lived an extended life and was in a position to witness the revival of the Japanese ladies’s program. In 2005 Mayu Kuroda completed 4th on the uneven bars on the World Championships. It was the primary time Japan had achieved such a excessive rating since Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda’s retirement. Whereas Mayu by no means gained a medal, she proved the Japanese program was on an upswing and that pattern has held agency.
Ever since 2005 Japan has been getting stronger with every passing Olympic quad. By the point of the post-Covid period Japan had develop into a full blown gymnastics powerhouse. This system now dominates the World Cup and whereas Keiko was Japan’s solely gold medalist in program historical past on the Olympics and World Championships degree, three totally different Japanese gymnasts have gained a gold medal since 2021.
Japan shouldn’t be solely successful on the senior degree, however are the reigning champions of the Junior World Championships. The extensively held perception is that Japan is without doubt one of the main powers within the present period of girls’s gymnastics and can proceed to be so for the following couple of years. Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda’s profession represented the Golden Age of Japanese gymnastics. Now this system is definitely in its 2nd Golden Age.
In recent times Japan has emerged because the main program on steadiness beam, the exact same equipment Keiko was most recognized for. This system achieved the reasonably uncommon feat by successful back-to-back gold medals on steadiness beam on the World Championships with two totally different gymnasts (Urara Ashikawa & Hazuki Watanabe). In doing so, the Japanese duo gained the identical medal, on the identical occasion, on the identical competitors as Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda had completed virtually 70 years prior.
Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda handed away of most cancers on the age of 89 years outdated on Could 13, 2023. She died at a time when she was in a position to witness the Japanese program on the top of its energy. The Japanese program she pioneered and set the usual that successful was attainable. Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda was in a position to witness Japan return to its former glory.
That former glory was Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda.
