Ri Se-Gwang

Ri Se-gwang (; born January 21, 1985) is a retired North Korean artistic gymnast, He is often considered a specialist on vault apparatus in the sport of men’s artistic gymnastics (MAG).

Career Ri was the first North Korean ever to win a gold medal on vault at the Asian Games, where he performed solidly at the 2006 Asian Games and was the first one for North Korea on that apparatus. He later went on to win a bronze medal on vault at the 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

In 2009, Ri successfully performed an extremely difficult new vault, a Tsukahara (1/4 entry in the first flight) on the vaulting table, followed by a full twisting double backwards salto in tuck position. The new vault is named after Ri.

At the 2018 Asian Games, Ri qualified in sixth place and finished in fifth place with an average combined score of 13.400 on the individual vault event behind the 2014 defending Asian Games champion on vault, Shek Wai Hung of Hong Kong (14.612), who also qualified for the 2018 individual vault event final in first place.

At the 2018 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Ri won gold with two of the highest 6.0 difficulty vaults and an average combined score of 14.933 ahead of Artur Dalaloyan of Russia (14.883) and Kenzō Shirai of Japan (14.675).

The FIG announced in February 2020 that Ri had retired from gymnastics.

Competitive history

Eponymous skills Ri is the only gymnast to currently own more than one (two) of only five most difficult vaults to have officially been awarded the highest difficulty score (D-score) of 6.0 by the governing body of all disciplines in competitive gymnastics, International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), in their most recent 2022–2024 Code of Points for MAG. Apparatus Name Description Difficulty NotesVault Ri Se Gwang backward full-twisting double (tucked) Tsukahara 6.0 reassessed for top difficulty to match the Yang Hak Seon on vaultRi Se Gwang 2 front handspring double piked salto with ½ twist more commonly known as the vault's “Drăgulescu piked” in practice