Haruhiro Yamashita

Haruhiro Yamashita
Yamashita at the 1964 Olympics
Personal information
Country represented Japan
Born (1938-11-11) November 11, 1938 (age 86)
Uwajima, Ehime, Japan
Height1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Weight60 kg (132 lb)
DisciplineMen's artistic gymnastics
Medal record
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 1964 Tokyo Team
Gold medal – first place 1964 Tokyo Vault
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 1962 Prague Team
Gold medal – first place 1966 Dortmund Team
Gold medal – first place 1966 Dortmund Vault
Silver medal – second place 1962 Prague Vault

Haruhiro Yamashita (山下 治広, Yamashita Haruhiro, born November 11, 1938) is a Japanese gymnast, who competed in the 1964 Summer Olympics. He won two gold medals, in the vault and team combined exercises.[1]

After marriage he changed his last name from Yamashita to Matsuda (松田), adopting his aunt's surname, who took care of him as a child.[2] In 1961, he graduated from Nippon Sport Science University, where in 1983 he became professor and later professor emeritus.[3] In the early 1970s he was an assistant gymnastics coach under Roger Council at the Indiana State University. There he began his research on biorhythms.[4]

Yamashita also trained the national gymnastics team, at the 1976 Summer Olympics and at the Asian Games in 1990,[3] and held senior positions with the Japan Gymnastics Association.[5]

In 2000 Yamashita was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.[6] He is an honorary citizen of his native town of Uwajima.[5]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference r1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "金獲った「ヤマシタ」固執せず…快挙の直後「マツダ」に挑戦". Sponichi ANNEX (in Japanese). スポーツニッポン新聞社. 2018-10-24. Retrieved 2018-10-24.
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference r2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference r1a was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference r3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "HARUHIRO YAMASHITA". International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2019-10-29.