One of the most remarkable stories I heard recently was about some incredible feet of composition and determination at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Twenty-six year old Japanese gymnast named Shun Fujimoto, while doing the floor routine fractured his patella (patella) of the right leg. The patella, when broken, is a terribly painful injury and makes the entire leg very weak. When it happened, he said: “I felt a strange and painful sensation in my right knee”, he also said later that “it felt hollow as if there was air in it”.

Fujimoto knew that if he withdrew now, he would jeopardize his team’s chances of a gold medal, so he did not tell anyone, especially the judges and his coach Yakuji Hayata, as they would probably have persuaded him to do so. that he would abandon

With this injury, he had two more events to perform, the Pummel Horse and the Rings. During the horse event he was totally preoccupied with the idea of ​​doing a flawless routine and not making any mistakes and obviously in pain he dismounted and got a near perfect score of 9.5 out of 10 possible.

The Rings proved to be a very difficult challenge for Shun as he was lifted up and grasped the Rings with his leg encased in a plastic brace, without thinking of the injury he knew if he let his mind focus on the event at hand . he could do this, since the promise of a Gold Medal was within reach of his country and team, this was more important than a few seconds of excruciating pain and discomfort.

They all waited breathlessly as he again performed almost perfectly and approached the eight foot high Rings takedown as this would be the most painful part of the routine he would have to keep his balance if he wanted to get there At the top. score for the Japanese team to go through and take the gold. When Shun left the Rings, he did a somersault in the air and the doctors at the side of the gym couldn’t believe their eyes as he did another flawless routine and landed on the floor, obviously in excruciating pain, gritting his teeth and keeping his balance. . .

Shun Fujimoto managed to get his best score in the Rings, an amazing 9.7 out of 10 and then his leg crumpled up under him causing more injuries, dislocating his knee and tearing ligaments in his leg, he completed the routine amid loud cheers and a round of applause from the audience.

Fujimoto showed even more courage as he limped up to the podium to receive his gold medal with his teammates. Japan won Gold by scoring 576.85 points against USSR’s 576.45, only four tenths of a point between them, that score would not have been possible without the amazing performance of Shun Fujimoto, using mind over matter and grit determination to go for the Gold and not letting a very serious injury get in the way of his goal, showed that the almost impossible could be done.