[4] He started gymnastics when he was three years old after his mother enrolled him in a nearby gym[5] because he was fascinated with a Japanese superhero television series Kamen Rider Hibiki.

While there he won an unprecedented five gold medals – in the all-around, floor exercise, rings, parallel bars, and horizontal bar – beating the previous record of three gold medals won by Nikita Nagornyy and Giarnni Regini-Moran at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games.

[8] Kitazono was selected to represent Japan at the inaugural Junior World Championships alongside Ryosuke Doi and Shinnosuke Oka.

[9] During event finals he won gold on pommel horse and parallel bars and placed seventh on floor exercise.

[10] In April, Kitazono damaged the ligaments in both elbows while competing on the horizontal bar at the All-Japan Championships, their national selection trials for the 2020 Olympic Games at home in Tokyo.

Shirai broke the long-standing record of Eizo Kenmotsu, who won team gold as a 20-year-8-month-and-11-day-old nearly 49 years ago at the 1968 Games.