Lee Chih-kai on Saturday ended a two-year medal drought in international competition, winning a bronze in the pommel horse at the Asian Men’s Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Zunyi, China.
The 30-year-old, known in Taiwan as the “pommel horse prince,” scored 14.133 points to claim his first career pommel horse medal at the Asian Championships.
Uzbekistan’s Utkirbek Juraev won gold, while China’s Zhang Boheng took silver.
Photo courtesy of coach Lin Yu-hsin via CNA
Lee said he was moved that his first individual apparatus medal at the Asian Championships came in the event that he is most closely associated with.
It was Lee’s fifth appearance at the Asian Championships. His previous medals at the event came in 2019, when he won gold in the individual all-around and bronze in the team all-around.
Lee made history at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, winning Taiwan’s first-ever Olympic gymnastics medal with a silver in the pommel horse. He later captured a second consecutive Asian Games gold medal in the event at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games.
However, he failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics and subsequently struggled with a series of injuries. Changes to the international scoring code for the 2025-2028 cycle have also limited the use of the Thomas Flair, one of his signature moves.
Reflecting on the two-year gap between medals, Lee said that he had also gone through a difficult period in 2015 and 2016.
“I didn’t give up then,” he said. “I kept adjusting, training and identifying problems before finally breaking through at the 2017 Taipei Universiade.”
Facing similar challenges a decade later, Lee said he again refused to give up, learning from mistakes and overcoming injuries to return to the podium.
He added that the past two years had not been wasted, as he used the time to adapt to the new scoring system.
Although the revised rules have restricted the Thomas Flair, Lee said they “cannot limit my motivation to win medals.”
He was also pleased that Taiwan finished fifth in the team competition, securing a berth in the World Championships in October.
Lee said that he and Olympic bronze medalist Tang Chia-hung have sought to mentor for younger members of the national team.
Lee’s coach Lin Yu-hsin said he was delighted to see Lee return to the podium after two years of setbacks.
The medal should give Lee greater confidence as he targets a third Asian Games pommel horse gold medal at the Nagoya Asian Games in the fall, while also setting his sights on the World Championships and the Los Angeles Olympics, Lin said.
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