Olympic Champion Noboyuki Aihara died at 78

The Japanese Olympic champion of artistic gymnastics, Nobuyuki AIHARA, who won two gold medals at the 1960 Olympics in Rome and helped usher in an era of Japanese gymnastic dominance, died on Tuesday, July 16, at the age of 78 years.
In Melbourne (1956), Aihara, a floor specialist, won an individual Olympic silver medal in the floor exercise and shared in Japan’s silver medal in the team all-around, which combined the team’s best scores in six events. The Soviet Union took the gold in the team all-around.
Nobuyuki Aihara was born on December 16, 1934, in Gunma Prefecture.
He started his gymnastic career at 15 at the Nippon Sport Science University, coached by his future teammate Takemoto. Aihara won the gymnastics world championships floor event in 1962.
In 1964, the same year Tokyo hosted the Olympics, he married Toshiko Shirasu, a gymnast and national team colleague. She helped the women’s team take the bronze medal that year in the team all-around. Aihara sat out the Games because of an injury. He later turned to coaching and founded the Aihara Gymnastics Club in 1979.
Yutaka Aihara, their son, carried on the family gymnastic tradition by helping the Japanese team win the bronze medal in the team all-around at the 1992 Games in Barcelona.