Tsurumi Koko (鶴見虹子 Tsurumi Kōko) (born September 28, 1992) is a retired Japanese artistic gymnast. She is the 2009 World all-around bronze medalist and uneven bars silver medalist.
Senior Career[]
Tsurumi was a member of the 2008 Japanese Olympic Team. The women's gymnastics team placed 5th in team competition. Individually, Tsurumi placed 17th in the all-around final and 8th in the balance beam event final. Tsurumi competed at the 2009 American Cup and placed 7th all-around.
At the 2009 World Championships in London, Tsurumi competed a historic performance to win the individual all-around bronze medal. During event finals, Tsurumi won the silver medal on uneven bars and placed 6th on balance beam. Tsurumi is the first Japanese woman gymnast to win a World Championships medal in 43 years. (The previous Japanese woman gymnast to win a World medal was Keiko Ikeda at the 1966 World Championships, where she had also won uneven bars silver and all-around bronze, as well as team bronze.)
Tsurumi competed at the 2010 Japan Cup and placed second all-around behind Ksenia Afanasyeva. At that competition, Tsurumi scored a 15.400 on uneven bars. She debuted a new bars routine with an Ono turn to half turn connected to a Tkachev and an Ono turn connected to a Jaeger. She also won the Japanese National All-Around title that year. At the 2010 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Tsurumi experienced problems with consistency and failed to make any event finals and placed 21st in the All Around, behind countrywoman Rie Tanaka.
At the 2011 Japan Cup, Koko placed 2nd place with the Japanese team in the team competition and won the gold medal in the all around competition. She placed 0.100 higher than 2nd place finisher, Chinese gymnast Sui Lu.
In April, she placed seventh in the all-around at the Japanese Nationals. That June, it was announced that Tsurumi would be on the Japanese team for the 2012 Olympics.
During qualifications, Tsurumi qualified eighth to the uneven bars final. The Japanese team qualified sixth to the team final and placed eighth overall. Individually, Tsurumi placed seventh in the uneven bars final.
In January 2013, Tsurumi was announced as part of the lineup for the American Cup, but withdrew five days prior to the competition. Injuries kept her out of competition for about a year and a half. She returned to competition at the Japan Team Championships in November 2014, where she won team gold.
In January, she returned to international competition at the WOGA Classic, where she won silver on uneven bars. She went on to place fifth in the all-around at the Japanese National Championships in late April. At the NHK Cup in May, she tore her Achilles tendon, leaving her out of competition for the rest of the season.[1] She retired from the sport in December.[2]
Medal Count[]
Year | Event | TF | AA | VT | UB | BB | FX |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2007 | Stuttgart World Championships | 15 | |||||
2008 | Beijing Olympic Games | 5 | 17 | 8 | |||
2009 | Tyson American Cup | 7 | |||||
London World Championships | 3rd | 2nd | |||||
2010 | Japan Cup | 2nd | |||||
Japanese National Championships | 1st | ||||||
Rotterdam World Championships | 21 | ||||||
2011 | Japan Cup | 2nd | 1st | ||||
NHK Cup | 1st | ||||||
Tokyo World Championships | 7 | 15 | 7 | ||||
2012 | Japanese National Championships | 7 | |||||
London Olympic Games | 8 | 7 | |||||
2014 | Japan Team Championships | 1st | |||||
2015 | WOGA Classic | 2nd | |||||
Japanese National Championships | 5 |