50 greatest Summer Olympians in history
By John Buhler
4. Sawao Kato, Gymnastics.
Japan’s Sawao Kato is one of olympic gymnastics most decorated athletes. Between 1968 and 1976, Japanese gymnast Sawao Kato won 12 Olympic medals (including eight gold), becoming one of the sport’s most iconic champions.
At the ’68 Mexico City Games, Kato won three gold (in the the team competition, the all-around, and in the floor exercise), to go along with a bronze showing in the rings.
Kato upped the ante in Munich, where he captured five medals, including three gold (team, all-around, and parallel bars) and two silvers (in the pommel horse and horizontal bars). At his Olympic swansong in Montreal, Kato nabbed his final three medals (two gold and a silver).
Kato competed at a high level in three straight Olympiads, in the process forging a fierce rivalry with the Soviet Union’s Nikolai Andrianov. He has since served as an Olympic judge and a gymnastics coach in his native Japan.
Next: 3. Mark Spitz.