The Instant Legend of Napoli’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
The World No. 1 was born in a small village of Georgia. A former gymnast, he has won five Olympic medals in his career, the most recent being gold in Rio 2016.
Since his first Games at the 1988 Seoul Games in South Korea, only his three appearances in the Summer Games (1996 in Atlanta, 2000 in Sydney and 2004 in Athens) have been missed.
That is why, despite an injury, he qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics alongside his teammate, a former gymnast.
In the same country, two athletes who had won a bronze medal in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing – and thus were considered two of the favourites for the gold medal – were sent to Rio after doping scandals had affected several more in the lead up to the 2016 Olympics.
Their last remaining gold medal, the 2011 World Championship in Germany, was also missed.
These four athletes are the only ones who can claim to have won more World Championship gold medals than in any other Games – six. They are also the only ones to have won a medal at every Summer Olympics.
In Rio, the reigning World Champions and Olympic champions, the Swiss gymnast Simone Biles, will compete for the first time in the Olympics.
Three-time Olympian, the Ukrainian Nadia Comaneci, won gold in the 2008 Games in Beijing, who will also be making her first appearance in the Olympics, after winning gold at the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia.
This year’s Games are also the first since 2000 when the host nation was held without a medal. In 2004, both the United States and China lost a medal.
The World No. 1 has been a constant presence at the Olympic Games and never lost, the only exception being in 2004 in Athens when he suffered an injury and missed the entire Games.
His two Olympic gold medals are the second-highest haul for a gymnast after the Russian gymnast Larisa Latynina, who won six Olympic medals, all gold.
The third place athlete, Gabby Douglas, is only the second gymnast to compete at six consecutive Olympics, after gymnast Simone Biles. She has won
