Ri Se-gwang (; born January 21, 1985) is a retired

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and ...

artistic gymnast Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different apparatuses. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which designs the Code of Points and regulates ...

, representing the

April 25 Sports Club April 25 Sports Club (, ''Sa i o ch'eyuktan''), or 4.25 SC for short, or sometimes April 25 National Defence Sports Club (4.25'국방체육단', ''Sa i o ch'eyuktan "Kukpang ch'eyuktan"''), is a multi-sports club based in P'yŏngyang, North Ko ...

. He is often considered a specialist on vault apparatus in the sport of men’s artistic gymnastics (MAG).

Career

Ri was the first

n ever to win a gold medal on vault at the

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until th ...

, where he performed solidly at the

2006 Asian Games 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

and was the first one for

on that apparatus. He later went on to win a bronze medal on

vault Vault may refer to: * Jumping, the act of propelling oneself upwards Architecture * Vault (architecture), an arched form above an enclosed space * Bank vault, a reinforced room or compartment where valuables are stored * Burial vault (enclosure ...

at the

2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 40th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart, Germany, from 1 to 9 September 2007. Medal summary Men's results Qualification Oldest and youngest competitors Team all-arou ...

. In 2009, Ri successfully performed an extremely difficult new vault, a Tsukahara (1/4 entry in the first flight) on the vaulting table, followed by a full twisting double backwards salto in tuck position. The new vault is named after Ri. The vault, now officially named the ''Ri Se Gwang'', was valued a difficulty score of 7.2 and the second highest difficulty value in the world, with Yang Hak Seon's vault the ''Yang Hak Seon'' (front handspring triple twist) being the most difficult with a 7.4 start value in the previous 2009-2012 Code of Points ( CoP) of the

International Gymnastics Federation The International Gymnastics Federation (French: Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique, FIG) is the body governing all disciplines of competitive gymnastics. Its headquarters is in Lausanne, Switzerland. It was founded on July 23, 1881, i ...

(

FIG The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...

) for MAG. Ri competed in the 2009 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships and qualified first for the individual vault final. He finished in seventh place in that event final after a fall on his first vault and going out of bounds on his second vault, with an average score of 15.650. Together with the entire

n delegation team, Ri was banned from competing in artistic gymnastics at the

2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

due to persistent issues with regards to age falsification accusations of their female gymnasts. The two-year ban ended on October 5, 2012, which came just a bit too late to try make that cycle's August Olympic Games. At the

2014 Asian Games The 2014 Asian Games ( ko, 2014년 아시아 경기대회/2014년 아시안 게임, Icheon sip-sa nyeon Asia gyeonggi daehoe/Icheon sip-sa nyeon Asian Geim), officially known as the 17th Asian Games ( ko, 제17회 아시아 경기대회/제17회 ...

, Ri qualified in first place ahead of the 2012 Olympic champion on vault, Yang Hak Seon of

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, but finished just missing the bronze medal by the narrowest of margins (0.001) with an average combined score of 14.799 on the individual vault event behind

Shek Wai Hung Shek Wai Hung (; born 10 October 1991) is an artistic gymnast from Hong Kong. He is the current Asian Games champion on vault. Gymnastics career Shek started gymnast training at the age of six. In 2008, Shek participated in the Pacific Rim Gym ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

(15.216), Yang Hak Seon (15.200) and Hung Xi of China (14.800). At the

2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships was held in Nanning, China at the Guangxi Gymnasium from 3–12 October 2014. The competition was the fourth time a World Artistic Gymnastics Championships has been held in the continent of Asia ...

held in Nanning, China, Ri defeated the reigning World and Olympic Champion Yang Hak Seon after Yang crashed in both his vaults during the event final, and won the gold medal with an average combined score of 15.413 ahead of

Ihor Radivilov Ihor (Igor) Vitaliyovych Radivilov ( uk, Ігор Віталійович Радівілов; born 19 October 1992) is a Ukrainian gymnast and three-time Olympian, having competed at the 2012, 2016, and 2020 Olympic Games. Although he competes on ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian invas ...

(15.333), 2012 Olympic bronze medalist on vault, and

Jacob Dalton Jacob "Jake" Dalton (born August 19, 1991) is a retired American gymnast who was a member of the University of Oklahoma gymnastics team and the United States men's national gymnastics team. He represented the United States at the 2012 Summer ...

from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

(15.199). Ri won thanks to the quad's highest difficulty scores of 6.4 assigned to both his vaults, and despite incurring a 0.3 penalty for stepping out-of-bounds in his second vault. On November 1, 2015, Ri participated in the

2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships was the forty-sixth edition of the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships. The competition was held from 23 October – 1 November 2015 at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow, United Kingdom, and is the f ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

, and successfully defended his individual vault title. He won with an average combined scored of 15.450 ahead of veteran

Marian Drăgulescu Marian Drăgulescu (born 18 December 1980 in Bucharest) is a former Romanian artistic gymnast. During his senior gymnastics career he won 31 medals at Olympic Games at World and European Championships, of which eight are gold medals at the World ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...

(15.400) and

Donnell Whittenburg Donnell Whittenburg (born August 18, 1994) is an American artistic gymnast whose strongest events are rings, vault, and floor. Early life Whittenburg is from central Baltimore, Maryland. Career Whittenburg won a bronze medal at the 2014 World ...

of the

(15.350). With the defending 2012 Olympic vault champion Yang Hak Seon of

out injured, Ri won gold in the individual vault final at the 2016 Summer Olympics in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of the same name, Brazil's List of Brazilian states by population, third-most populous state, and the List of largest citi ...

. At the

2018 Asian Games The 2018 Asian Games ( id, Pesta Olahraga Asia 2018 or ''Asian Games 2018''), officially known as the 18th Asian Games and also known as Jakarta-Palembang 2018 or Indonesia 2018, was a Asia, continental multi-sport event that was held from 18 A ...

, Ri qualified in sixth place and finished in fifth place with an average combined score of 13.400 on the individual vault event behind the 2014 defending Asian Games champion on vault,

(14.612), who also qualified for the 2018 individual vault event final in first place. At the

2018 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 2018 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships was the 48th edition of the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships. The competition was held from October 25 – November 3, 2018, at the Aspire Academy Dome in Doha, Qatar. It was the first t ...

, Ri won gold with two of the highest 6.0 difficulty vaults and an average combined score of 14.933 ahead of Artur Dalaloyan of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

(14.883) and

Kenzō Shirai is a Japanese men's former athlete of artistic gymnastics ( AG). Born in Yokohama, Kanagawa, he, a graduate of Kishine High School, joined the Nippon Sport Science University ( Nittaidai). Shirai took the team gold, and a bronze on individual v ...

of Japan (14.675). The

announced in February 2020 that Ri had retired from gymnastics.

Competitive history

Eponymous skills

Ri is the only gymnast to currently own more than one (two) of only five most difficult vaults to have officially been awarded the highest difficulty score (D-score) of 6.0 by the governing body of all disciplines in competitive gymnastics,

(

), in their most recent 2022–2024 Code of Points for MAG.

References

External links

*
Ri Se Gwang
at Olympic.org (archived) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ri, Se-gwang 1985 births Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships Living people North Korean male artistic gymnasts People from South Hamgyong Asian Games medalists in gymnastics Gymnasts at the 2006 Asian Games Gymnasts at the 2014 Asian Games Gymnasts at the 2018 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for North Korea Gymnasts at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic gymnasts of North Korea Olympic gold medalists for North Korea Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in gymnastics Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games Universiade medalists in gymnastics Universiade silver medalists for North Korea Universiade bronze medalists for North Korea Originators of elements in artistic gymnastics 21st-century North Korean people