Kenzō Shirai

In October 2013, shortly after turning 17, Shirai was the youngest man selected to compete at the 2013 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships,[7] one of two major FIG-organised international events, for the first time, in Antwerp, Belgium. He with South Korea’s Kim Hee Hoon successfully executed the same new skill then—later officially named the Shirai or Shirai-Kim on vault, which is a Yurchenko (again MAG’s platform-entry skill with a RO–BH onto table and naming credit given to former Soviet gymnast Natalia Yurchenko after a Moscow competition in 1982) triple twist, or TTY—automatically qualifying the vault to be officially named after two athletes. Shirai with Vietnam's Tuan Dat Nguyen successfully competed another same new skill too—the Shirai or Shirai-Nguyen on floor, or quadruple-twisting (back) layout. Both skills took the names of two athletes officially, but each skill also evolved separately to have its name shortened over time by many in practice to only the Shirai, owing a lot to Shirai first qualifying for these two individual event finals, and then also finishing well in them—Kim and Nguyen did not qualify for their own event finals. Lastly, Shirai has successfully originated yet one more skill by himself too in Antwerp to officially just take his name–the Shirai 2 on floor, or triple-twisting front layout.

Shirai became relevant quickly at senior international elite circuit competitions due to his constant presence, continual participation, friendly disposition and popularity. Because of his achievement at majors, Shirai has often been seen to be the current face of Japanese men's AG at international competitions recently from these WC. Known also after Antwerp for his uncanny “twisting” abilities, he usually executed floor routines with D-scores well above 7.0 using mostly twisting skills/combinations. The Shirai (or Shirai-Kim) on vault, plus Shirai (or Shirai-Nguyen) and Shirai 2 on floor exercise were assessed respective D-scores of 6.0, plus F (0.6) and F (0.6) in the FIG’s 2013–2016 CoP then. The D-score of Shirai’s floor skills held up well, but vault was decreased to 5.6 after adjustment in the next quad’s 2017–2020 CoP. No team event was held here as it is customary since 2005 to omit both MAG and WAG team events at the WC, which immediately follows the Olympic Games (OG). Due to this custom and the WC not occurring in Olympic years, team events are in effect only held consistently using a “two (consecutive) years on and two years off” format as a four-year Olympic cycle moves on to the next with second and third always being “on” years—first years are by custom “off” with fourth the Olympic years.

Qualifying for his first ever WC individual floor and vault event finals, Shirai did so on floor with an enormous-first-place score of 16.233—0.633 above second highest qualifier Brazil’s Diego Hypólito (15.600). Shirai would then go on as the youngest man to win gold at this event’s end too. He was 17 years, 1 month and 11 days old. In the individual floor event finals, Shirai won to become the youngest ever men’s world floor champion with “historic” top-7.4-D-score routine consisting of 22¼ twists. His passes: 1) RO–BH–3½ punch double full, 2) front full punch Shirai 2, 3) RO–whip back–triple full, 4) RO–BH–2½ punch 2½, 5) RO–side flip full twist, and 6) RO–BH–Shirai. Compatriot Kōhei Uchimura captured the bronze medal with a total score of 15.500, and highest execution score (E-score) of 9.100 in that final. Posting a 16.000 total score, Shirai's 0.4 victory margin over American silver medallist Jacob Dalton, who posted a 15.600, was biggest between any top individual finalist pairs. Due to Shirai's demonstrated clean execution of this extremely difficult routine in qualifying, it gave American gold-medallist-turned-commentator Tim Daggett enough confidence to declare on live TV that “there is no way Shirai doesn’t win this” right before Shirai started his final routine, which Shirai twisted his way to a gold medal.[8]

In the individual vault event finals, Shirai had incurred a 0.1-point penalty on his first vault for stepping out-of-bounds, finishing in fourth (15.133) place instead of tying for third highest combined average. The vaults Shirai executed were the Shirai or Shirai-Kim, and Driggs (or Tsukahara 2½ twist—originated by Abel Driggs Santos of Cuba in the 2000s), and they had D-score values of 6.0 and 5.6 respectively in the FIG’s then most recent 2013–2016 CoP for MAG. These vaulting numbers were each 15.266 and 14.900. Here, the defending world (2011) and Olympic (2012) champion on vault, Yang Hak Seon of South Korea (15.533), captured the gold medal with Steven Legendre of the United States (15.249) and Kristian Thomas of Great Britain (15.233) in fine form too after they took home silver and bronze respectively. Naming of the Shirai on vault or floor is considered important in AG as less original skills have been named recently due to stricter rules of what skills qualify, slowing the ever increasing number of eponymous-skill names to help avoid confusion for people less familiar with them. Original names are now generally only given to skills that have some significance to the overall sport of AG with other successfully-originated-skill names deriving from their common and skill progression ones in practice.

In October 2014, Shirai competed at the 2014 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Nanning, China. In the team event finals, his solid contribution was on two events, floor and vault, helping team Japan take the silver with score totalling 273.269 behind team China (273.369)—just 0.1 (i.e. one small step) short to tie for gold. Shirai posted the second highest values on two of his events in the team finals with scores of 15.766 on floor behind the 15.900 by Jacob Dalton of the United States, who Shirai did relegate to silver medal position in the individual floor event finals a year ago, and 15.400 on vault behind the 15.566 posted by Sérgio Sasaki of Brazil. Shirai and his AG team were happy in retaking silver, matching their recent best results in 2007 and 2010. In 2011, they just managed seventh place in the team final. In the individual apparatus finals, Shirai qualified for his same two floor and vault events again, easily doing so on floor using familiar-7.4-difficulty routine, but was not able to defend his 2013 title, taking silver instead with 15.733. One mistake was enough to lose gold by only 0.017, placing second behind a surprised Russia’s Denis Ablyazin (15.750),[9] who won the bronze on the individual floor event at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London with his same-longer-but-then-top-7.1-difficulty routine.

In the individual vault event finals, Shirai finished in fourth place again with a combined average score of 15.062 despite having one of the two top E-scores (9.466) in the final, but he unfortunately had a comparatively weak second vault with a D-score of only 5.6, which was the only vault that final scoring below 6.0 and significantly lower than all of his other vaults executed in that final, and ended any chance of him seriously challenging his rivals. In contrast, the eventual gold medallist had a 6.4 D-score value for both of his vaults, which resulted in a 0.8-point deficit just on Shirai’s second vault alone right from the beginning even before the event final started. Ri Se Gwang of North Korea (15.416) had won the gold medal with Igor Radivilov of Ukraine (15.333) and Dalton (15.199) securing their respective silver and bronze. South Korea’s top-qualifying-two-time defending champion, Yang Hak Seon, placed seventh even with two anticipated top 6.4-difficulty vaults after both crashed—the Yang Hak Seon (front handspring triple twist) and Tsukahara 3½ (failed attempt at verifying the widely expected Yang Hak Seon 2). Winner Ri executed his own two 6.4 vaults—the Ri Se Gwang (full-twisting double Tsukahara) and Ri Se Gwang 2 (front handspring double piked ½ twist [or aka the “Drăgulescu piked” in practice]).

Top two vault qualifiers of Yang (15.449) and Ablyazin (15.383), the 2012 Olympic gold and silver medallists on vault, were penalised with latter finishing in last place. Shirai (15.195) qualified in fifth place behind Ri (15.250) and Radivilov (15.233), who were third and fourth, albeit Ri did also incur a large penalty on the second vault. Shirai was said to be working on improving the floor routine’s E-score mark as technical error (one foot step out on third pass) cost him 0.1 penalty from overall score. In floor qualifying, Shirai (16.033) also acquired the same exact penalty as he qualified himself for the floor apparatus finals in second place behind Ablyazin (16.066). Despite expectations of him defending his world floor title, some have also duly noted that even with far greater D-scores comparatively, Shirai’s routines consisted of compositions derived only from “single somersault” (one revolution) skills until then, which were quite uncommon plus limiting too, made harder entirely by completing them before and/or after in combination as a variety of passes with different twisting/bounding skills. In anticipation of what else we could additionally expect of Shirai, the reason for his floor routine's massive D-score is the result of having extreme-difficulty skills/combinations with many bonuses including his dismount on the Shirai.

In October 2015, Shirai competed at the 2015 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. In the team event finals, he made contributions on the same two apparatuses again, floor exercise and vault, and helped Japan secure the team gold medal this year with a combined score total of 270.818, outscoring the silver medal team from Great Britain by almost ½ a point. Shirai’s floor exercise score in the team finals (16.325) was highest among all gymnasts, and the only score to exceed 16 points with the second highest at over ½ a point lower. His vault score of 15.533 was the team event finals’ second highest posted for this apparatus too behind the 15.700 posted by Russian Denis Ablyazin, who narrowly defeated Shirai for the gold last year too in the individual floor exercise event finals at 2014’s WC. Shirai qualified for his same two individual event finals again. He did so on floor in first place with a 16.100, 0.734 above next top scorer China’s Deng Shudi (15.366). On October 31, 2015, Shirai won the second WC floor title. In the individual floor event finals, he competed another very hard routine, scoring 16.233, ahead of Briton Max Whitlock and Spain’s Rayderley Zapata. Shirai’s 0.667 victory margin over Whitlock was widest among all male finalists here—bettered Shirai’s 2013 WC results.

Shirai’s latest floor routine with even more extreme D-score start value of 7.6 was once again highest among all individual floor finalists. The resulting huge 17.6 base score was due to his high connection bonuses of various skill combinations, and also by ending many passes blindly facing forwards that risked his combination lines. His routines till then only consisted of “single somersault” (one revolution) skills, but it was at this event that he began displaying additional abilities to execute “double somersault” (two revolutions) skills consistently. E.g. the Ri Jong Song on floor (triple-twisting double back [tucked] somersault, or aka a “triple-double”; originated by North Korea’s Ri Jong Song at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens) with a high G (0.7) D-score, the second highest value that was given then to skills on all events except for vault in artistic gymnastics to be his floor routine’s second pass. Hence, Shirai needed to amend his existing second pass of “front full twist punch Shirai 2” to come third, and also eliminate the routine's original third pass of “RO–whip back–triple full” completely. Order of all the updated passes: 1) RO–BH–3½ twist punch double full, 2) RO–BH–Ri Jong Song, 3) forward full punch Shirai 2, 4) RO–BH–2½ twist punch 2½ twist, 5) RO–full-twisting side somersault, and 6) RO–BH–Shirai.

In the individual vault event finals, Shirai placed seventh with the average combined total of 14.516. He had posted competitive E-scores among the finalists, but both Shirai's vaults had the lower D-scores of 5.6 and 5.2 for 2015, lacking then the higher numbers necessary to achieve the bigger average combined score needed and realistically challenge the world's top vaulters for a spot on the podium when every other vault completed in the individual final had a score of 6.0 in difficulty or above. One detail to note here of Shirai's worst vault final result at the WC since his 2013 debut—he started both his two planned vaults normally, but due to his poor landing position of the “Yurchenko” first vault, Shirai or Shirai-Kim, (3 twists) with 6.0 D-score, judges downgraded it to the Shewfelt or Amanar (2½ twists) with 5.6 D-score for incomplete twisting,[10] resulting in Shirai's team decision to simplify the “Tsukahara” next or second vault from the Driggs (2½ twists) with 5.6 D-score to Akopian (2 twists—originated by Artur Akopian of the former Soviet Union at the WC earlier in the 1980s) with 5.2 D-score since chances of Shirai medalling at that moment in the competition had then suddenly become mathematically extremely unlikely in an instant, effectively due to the initial difficulty loss of 0.4 on his higher-scoring vault. These numbers, 5.6 and 5.2, happen to correspond perfectly then too with the lower D-scores of the respective Shirai or Shirai-Kim, and Driggs in next quad's CoP. Ri Se Gwang of North Korea (15.450) defended his gold, Romania’s Marian Drăgulescu (15.400) won silver, and American Donnell Whittenburg (15.350) won bronze.

On December 12–13, 2015, Shirai—representing previously his childhood home club, Tsurumi Junior Gymnastics Club, he currently competes out of his university as new home club Nippon Sport Science University (NSSU)—competed at the lower-profile but respectable 2015 Toyota International Gymnastics Competition in Toyota City, Japan. Even though not an FIG-organised international competition, they had a good pool of gymnasts on their roster, and were of some importance because he had successfully completed his third original skill, one of the currently two most difficult skills on floor in MAG. Via petition, the skill has since taken Shirai’s name, and been officially named the Shirai 3 on floor. Practically, it is the straight Ri Jong Song on floor (or triple-twisting double layout), an H (0.8) second “double somersault” (two revolutions) skill, which would later be incorporated into a new floor routine in the next 2017–2020 quad. His routine's passes in this quad would stay unchanged. This was one of the last options to compete in the 2015 season as gymnasts use it to help peak performances as they move on to the fast-approaching Olympic year. At this individual-apparatus-only competition, Shirai won both golds in the individual floor and vault apparatus finals, posting scores of 15.700 and 15.225 respectively.

Due to its extreme difficulty of the Shirai 3 on floor then, Shirai also achieved the very rare honour of sharing with Andreas Bretschneider of Germany, Valeri Liukin of the former Soviet Union, and Donnell Whittenburg of the United States to own one, until just quite recently, of only four longstanding most difficult and highest-scoring competition-verified original skills in all of MAG to receive the previous official top score assignment of H (0.8) difficulty from the FIG. At present, Bretschneider, Liukin and Whittenburg successfully competed the Bretschneider on high bar (or Kovac [high bar release skill with one full twist integrated into its somersault portion of the skill—originated by Péter Kovács of Hungary at the 1979 European Championships] double full), Liukin on floor (or triple tucked back), and Whittenburg on rings (or triple piked back dismount) respectively. The FIG had once highly expected Bretschneider to progress his very own skill into the layout position—already named it the Bretschneider 2 on high bar, suggesting it could be given MAG's new top difficulty of I (0.9) to mirror WAG’s only existing top level floor skill—but he could not do so. This WAG’s only top I (0.9) level skill then—the Moors on floor, or double-twisting double back layout, by Victoria Moors of Canada, who originated it at the 2013 WC.

On August 6, 2016, at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Japan qualified first for team all-around (AA) finals, extending 2015’s WC success. They secured team gold two days later in the event finals at Rio Olympic Arena with a 274.094 total. Only 19 years, 11 months and 15 days old, Shirai did his job well by contributing top floor and vault final scores of 16.133 and 15.633,[11] but did not perform on another apparatus at these Games. Strength of his scores—began with the finals’ best TTY stuck landing, only to top it with “one of his best” floor routines (0.533 above next score)—enhanced team mentally to get better with each routine. Russia was top-first-two-event scorers. Japan started with pommel-horse fall in sixth after first rotation, fifth on second, second for topping third/VT, and first from fifth. Shirai scored team finals’ top vault with best E-score (9.633) despite lower difficulty (6.0) than skills by Russia’s Denis Ablyazin (6.4) or Japan’s Kōhei Uchimura (6.2). Japan‘s men were top-ranked on FX, VT and high bar with FX’s top 3 scores plus VT’s first and third; they (274.094) won over Russia (271.453) and China (271.122). All members of Japan’s “fantastic” group: Ryōhei Katō, Shirai (only male not on their last Olympic AG team), Yūsuke Tanaka, Uchimura (captain) and Koji Yamamuro.

Shirai appeared in good form as he qualified for the individual floor and vault finals. As twice/reigning floor world champion then owning a 7.6-D-score routine, he was favourite to win floor final but placed disappointing fourth (15.366) with landing troubles in 3 of 6 passes. His team final floor score would beat the winner by ½ a point. If Shirai had included the latest eponymous floor skill, Shirai 3, into routines that quad, he could have achieved another next-level-7.7 D-score in the 2013–2016 CoP. Max Whitlock of Great Britain (15.633), the gymnast who Shirai had readily beaten only a year ago in the individual floor final at the 2015 WC by a wide score margin, won gold, and Diego Hypólito (15.533) and Arthur Mariano (15.433), both of host Brazil, were second and third. Increasingly noisy/hostile home crowd boos and jeers during non-Brazilian routines towards the end was disgraceful—some in final shaken/denied chance to excel at Olympics, but Shirai and American Sam Mikulak, who qualified first but ended last, got it the worst. Both said blatantly partial crowd input left them feeling “alone” or “rattled”.[12] Lucky to perform early, Whitlock got spared. Shirai was capable/in-form with sufficient experience (twice floor world champion)—en route to win the individual floor gold, but unbecoming crowd ruined all chances.

In the next day’s individual vault event final, Shirai scored a combined average of 15.449 (15.833 and 15.066 for his two vaults—former becoming the highest-scoring vault of that final), and tied the legendary Marian Drăgulescu of Romania with the third highest numeric score in the event final. The tie-breaker had worked in Shirai’s favour this time, to win him the bronze, edging out Drăgulescu, who was great too and scored the identical combined average but missed making that critical deciding factor for breaking ties then, which was the single highest numeric execution score (9.466 versus 9.433) in any of their already executed vaults, to finish in third place. With defending champion, Yang Hak Seon of South Korea, out injured, Ri Se Gwang of North Korea (15.691), whose AG federation was banned from competitions in much of 2012 amid continual age falsification violations by their female athletes, won gold while Ablyazin (15.516) successfully defended his silver. In vault qualifying, Shirai, Ukraine’s Igor Radivilov, Drăgulescu and Russia’s Nikita Nagornyy in this order placed third through sixth, but all scored third highest 15.283, though Radivilov and Drăgulescu did incur a 0.1 penalty each for one-foot-out landings on their second vaults, which Shirai used his own’s top E-score (9.500) to place ahead then too.

In Rio, Shirai also successfully completed a second new vault, now officially named the Shirai 2, or Yurchenko 3½ twist, which was given the second highest D-score of 6.4 in the FIG’s 2013–2016 CoP at this time with the top 7.0 D-score awarded ahead for the Radivilov, or front handspring triple (tucked) somersault, originated by the 2012 Olympic vault bronze medallist and vault specialist, Radivilov. Naming credit was given despite him sitting the skill down in the individual vault final, just for it to be totally banned from competition and removed from the next CoP due to a high risk of injury when competing/training the skill. Thus, Shirai now shares honour of owning at least one in four of only five official top 6.0-difficutty eponymous skills named with the 2012 and 2016 Olympic vault champions—Yang has one, and Ri two. The five hardest vaults awarded the highest 6.0 D-score in the 2017–2020 CoP are the Shirai 2, Yang Hak Seon, Tsukahara 3½, Ri Se Gwang and Ri Se Gwang 2. There is one other pre-assessed vault then with an even greater 6.4 D-score awaiting verification, which is the full-twisting double Tsukahara, or Ri Se Gwang, piked. In two of the five vaults mentioned above, the former two—the Shirai 2 and Yang Hak Seon—only their originators have ever successfully completed them at majors.

On February 22–25, 2017, Shirai competed abroad at the individual-apparatus-only-meet 2017 Melbourne World Cup (WCup) in Melbourne, Australia, with expanded programme including more individual finals on the horizontal or high bar (HB), still rings (SR) and parallel bars (PB). In rings qualifications, he placed tenth or last with low execution decreasing enough the combined total to not qualify for its event final. In parallel bars qualifications, Shirai placed third, and qualified for this event final. Despite a fall in his routine during the horizontal bar qualifications, Shirai finished in fourth place due to errors made by his rivals, and ended up in the event finals too. In the individual parallel bars event finals, Shirai won silver by posting the second highest execution (8.433), and thus combined score of 14.433. A Chinese gymnast, Zou Jingyuan (15.166), secured the gold while Ferhat Arican of Turkey (13.566) took home the bronze. In the individual horizontal bar event finals, Shirai managed to capture the gold medal with a 13.933 combined score, thanks to his other skill with second highest E-score (8.333), and even more errors made by other competitors. In this final, Mitchell Morgans of Australia (13.400) and one of Shirai's fellow Japanese, Yusuke Saito (13.333), had claimed their respective silver and bronze medals.

Still riding on some of the momentum from all that preparation for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Shirai was in good competition form. In the individual floor and vault qualifying, Shirai placed first and qualified for his two specialty finals on his seasoned routines/skills. In the individual floor event final, Shirai easily won the gold with his extreme score of 14.700 largely because of his routine's highest score number of 7.2 in difficulty—the second highest only 6.5 among all the finalists. This is also the first competition where Shirai fully integrated the Shirai 3 on floor with D-score of H (0.8) he originated back in 2015 into his competitive floor routines. His passes—1) RO–BH–Shirai 3, 2) RO–BH–Ri Jong Song, 3) RO–BH–2½ punch 2½, 4) front full punch Shirai 2, 5) RO–BH–3½ punch full, and 6) RO–BH–Shirai. Mu Jile of China (14.466) captured the silver medal while Arican (14.033) won his second bronze down under. Lastly, in the individual vault event final, Shirai won the second gold medal of the competition with the average combined score of 14.916 because of the two highest execution numbers of 9.500 and 9.533 he posted in this apparatus final. Christopher Remkes of Australia (14.883) took home the silver while another of Shirai's countryman, Wataru Tanigawa (14.566), captured the bronze.

Like in Toyota City, this earlier/lower-profile FIG World Cup competition holds some significance too because in Melbourne, Shirai had successfully completed still yet one more original element—his sixth in total—to then be officially named the Shirai 3 on vault automatically. Thus, he currently has more skills bearing his name than any other male gymnast in history, and second only to Svetlana Khorkina of Russia, who holds the all-time record of having nine original skills adopt her name across all the four events for WAG. The Shirai 3 on vault (or aka a “full on–double full off” in practice) was assigned 5.4 D-score in the 2017–2020 CoP. The vault technically had a RO–full-twisting BH (or Scherbo [vault table entry skill]—originated by Vitaly Scherbo of the former Soviet Union, then Unified Team, and finally Belarus early in the 1990s) entry onto platform into (back layout) double twist off it thereafter—rare but skill may be called a “double-twisting Scherbo” too. To incorporate the Shirai 3 on floor into the existing floor routine, Shirai began initially by swapping it into the starting position as the first pass with the Ri Jong Song staying as the second pass executed immediately after. To reflect his higher D-score in the change, the rest of his floor routine was adjusted accordingly too. Yet to be realised, the progression's next vault in line—RO–full-twisting BH onto platform into 2½ twist off it (or aka a “full on–2½ off”)—it was assessed in advance and assigned 5.8 D-score value, which many think it to be too low as the Li Xiao Peng on vault (or aka a “½ on–2½ off” in practice—originated by the great Chinese gymnast Li Xiao Peng in the 2000s) has already been long given a 5.8 D-score too. A “full on–2½ off” has by nature more twists, and thus is more complex/harder to complete—should have a higher D-score.

In October 2017, Shirai showed he retained more of the Olympic form when he competed at the 2017 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Montreal, Canada. No team events were held, as it is customary since 2005 at the WC in the year right after the Olympics. Shirai would eventually win three medals on a full competition programme that included owning a routine on his last holdout event of pommel horse (PH). He had then become eligible for the individual AA competition in Montreal, winning the first world AA medal (bronze) behind Xiao Ruoteng (86.933) and Lin Chaopan (86.488), both of China.[13] Shirai's combined total of 86.431 has 15.733 on floor, 13.433 on pommel horse, 13.666 on still rings, 15.000 on vault, 14.633 on parallel bars, and 13.966 on high bar. With the top numbers on floor and vault among AA finalists, Shirai had also easily defended the individual world floor title from two years ago when the WC were last held with a final score of 15.633,[14] out-tumbling the silver medallist, Artem Dolgopyat of Israel—just managing a score of 14.533—by over a point. Shirai's final unassailable victory margin of 1.1 became their widest one yet at the WC, outdistancing himself from his rivals even more than the 2015 performance did. His passes stayed consistent after originating the Shirai 3 on floor.

Shirai also qualified second for the vault's individual event finals with an average combined total of 14.949 but subsequently won his first world vault title by putting up the highest average combined scores of 14.900, 15.200 and 14.600 for his first and second numbers respectively,[15] in a very exciting/close last round of competition. After the Olympics, Shirai returned to compete both of his usual vaults—the Shirai or Shirai-Kim, and Driggs—where he posted the top E-score of 9.600, and 9.400. His vaults’ D-scores had since been lowered from 6.0 and 5.6 (2013–2015) in the last 2013–2016 quad to 5.6 and 5.2 (2017–2018) in the FIG’s next 2017–2020 CoP. Shirai did manage to win with the absolute slimmest of victory margin by just 0.001 after the 2012 Olympic bronze medallist on vault, event specialist Igor Radivilov of Ukraine, came up short and finished with the closest possible second highest average combined score of 14.899. Shirai did also get a little help when the top qualifier and 2012 Olympic champion on vault, South Korea’s Yang Hak Seon, withdrew with a hamstring injury after outscoring Shirai by a significant margin of 0.334 with the average combined score of 15.283 in qualifying, which was three times more than the margin of any two other qualifiers. These score differences were only about 0.1.

It is also worth noting that Shirai has executed two identical vaults as he has done since this event debut at the 2013 WC on every individual vault event, even though he has successfully completed more difficult and higher-scoring vaults in competition—specifically the Shirai 2 and Shirai 3 with the former heavily contributing to his bronze medal win at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and latter slightly less his gold in the individual vault event final at the 2017 Melbourne World Cup. Like D-scores of other selected vaults across the board, the ones for the Shirai 2 and Shirai 3 were also adjusted to 5.6 and 5.2 respectively in this 2017–2020 quad. Also, Hidetaka Miyachi of Japan took advantage of injuries on German Andreas Bretschneider, who was beaten to the punch here in 2017, originating the first double-twisting layout Kovac, or now officially named the Miyachi on high bar—only skill then given the new top level I (0.9) D-score value, and created in advance specially for it by the FIG—successfully first on home soil at the All-Japan Apparatus Championships in Takasaki, Japan, before he petitioned governing body to officially verify skill completion and name adoption. I (0.9), the new top D-score, was created then to assist an existing MAG scoring system more accurately reflect the very extreme D-score of the Miyachi on high bar, which was verified here at these 2017 WC then—as a result, it did also update the MAG scoring system levels again mirror WAG.

On March 3, 2018, Shirai started this competition season for 2018 when he accepted the invitation to participate in the American Cup FIG Individual All-Around World Cup 2018 or 2018 American Cup in Hoffman Estates (suburb of Chicago), United States. In the individual AA-only competition, he placed sixth, achieving a combined total of 81.498 despite posting top floor and vault scores, the signature apparatuses, of 15.066 and 14.966 respectively, and second highest tying Yul Moldauer of the United States on parallel bars with 14.500 behind leader Petro Pakhniuk of Ukraine with 14.933. Each of Shirai's scores, in particular on pommel horse, was relatively weaker when compared to all other finalists. Hovering sufficiently lower, Shirai's numbers on each of the apparatuses were a 11.100 on pommel horse (lowest on that apparatus with top number posted nearly three full points higher), 13.700 on still rings, and 12.166 on the horizontal bar. As defending, and eventual, champion of the competition, Moldauer scored an 85.964, outscoring Shirai by a fair margin of almost 4½ points because Moldauer was able to achieve one of the top three scores on every apparatus—the highest scorer on still rings, third highest on vault, tie for the second highest on parallel bars, and second highest on the remaining apparatuses.

On April 14, 2018, Shirai competed at this spring's last FIG-sanctioned World Cup competition with home advantage at the FIG Individual All-Around World Cup 2018 or 2018 Tokyo World Cup in Tokyo, Japan. In this group of competing gymnasts at different experience levels from many countries across several world continents of Europe, Asia and the Americas, Shirai won gold on the individual all-around event, his very first all-around gold medal at an FIG competition with a combined score of 86.064. Scores from each apparatus were 15.200 on floor, 13.533 on pommel horse, 13.766 on still rings, 14.966 on vault, 14.466 on parallel bars, and 14.133 on the horizontal bar. Among these scores, Shirai also put up one of the top three values on all apparatuses with the highest numbers on floor, pommel horse and vault, plus second highest on parallel bars and the horizontal bar too behind the two scores of 14.533 posted by Russia‘s Artur Dalaloyan on the former and 14.500 by American Sam Mikulak on the latter apparatuses, as well as third highest on rings behind the values of 14.366 and 14.300 scored by Dalaloyan and Wataru Tanigawa of Japan. At the end, respectable efforts by first-time winners, Tanigawa and Mikulak, managed to win silver and bronze with respective combined scores of 84.399 and 84.098.

On May 19–20, 2018, Shirai competed at the lower-profile non-FIG individual all-around-only event, also at home—primarily for the Japanese coaches to help assess the level of fitness and preparation of each local gymnast hoping to be included onto the national team for namely the WC—at the 2018 NHK Trophy in Tokyo, Japan. Although it is not an event organised by the FIG, Japan still requires participation with favourable results at the competition as a prerequisite in order to be considered for the Japanese team at the next WC. If an athlete had to miss the event but still want represent Japan then, he or she must secure a waiver, which is rarely granted. Shirai won the silver medal here with a combined score of 257.895 including floor's top score of 15.433 as well as third highest of 14.833 on vault, just behind Takumi Sato competing only on floor, rings and vault, and vault specialist Hidenobu Yonekura competing only on his one specialty apparatus. For Shirai's other events, those scores were 13.600 on pommel horse, 13.366 on rings, 14.433 on parallel bars, and 14.066 on high bar respectively. Gold medal went to the legend Kōhei Uchimura, who had come from behind to win with the combined total of 258.629,[16] which also included the top score (14.966) on high bar, and second highest (14.633) on floor.

On October 25–November 3, 2018, Shirai competed at the 2018 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Doha, Qatar—the first ever WC held in the Middle East. As he lost competition form and became less successful this year than in 2017, he still won one silver and two bronzes like even after using easier FX routines. Shirai contributed to Japan’s team bronze medal on FX, VT and HB with values of 14.933, 14.966 and 13.966 respectively. He also made the individual finals on the AA, FX and VT. In the individual AA finals, he was unable to repeat success comparable to 2017's bronze win, managing only to place seventh with combined total of 84.531. Shirai's final scores on all six events—14.900 on FX, 12.533 on PH, 13.666 on SR, 15.166 on VT, 14.266 on PB, and 14.000 on HB. He has since debuted a simpler-new-with-similar-difficulty-and-one-pass-less floor routine earlier on 29 April at 2018's All-Japan AA Championships by combining the Ri Jong Song and third passes into one harder combination—more connection bonuses. This 7.1-D-score routine (it was 7.2) could help to slow down body's wear and tear in training or competition. The passes here—1) RO–BH–Shirai 3, 2) RO–BH–1½ punch Shirai 2 punch full, 3) RO–BH–3½ punch double full, 4) RO–BH–2½ punch 2½, and 5) RO–BH–Shirai.

In the individual floor and vault event finals, Shirai was likewise unable to defend both the 2017 gold medals, and could only manage the respective silver and bronze. In the individual floor exercise apparatus finals, Shirai totalled a 14.866 score behind Russia’s much-improved-gold-medallist, Artur Dalaloyan (14.900), who was also 2018’s individual AA event champion that just barely outscored Shirai with a cleaner routine. Shirai’s even easier floor routine with a D-score of only 6.8 was a bit less than usual, but still more than Dalaloyan (6.2), whose higher enough execution (8.700) had outscored Shirai (8.066) in combined totals. Shirai’s routine again in six of his passes—1) RO–BH–Ri Jong Song, 2) front full punch Shirai 2, 3) RO–BH–2½ punch 2½, 4) RO–BH–Shirai, 5) RO–BH–3½ punch full, and 6) RO–BH–triple full. In the individual vault apparatus finals, Shirai scored a comparably smaller average combined number of 14.675 due to the lower D-scores assigned to all of the skills he completed, particularly the second, behind eventual silver medallist Dalaloyan (14.883), plus gold medallist Ri Se Gwang of North Korea (14.933), who is the 2016 Olympic vault champion. Shirai’s two vaults had lower D-scores of good significance then—5.6 and 5.2—if compared to the 2018 gold-medal-winning duo of 6.0 each.

It may be appropriate to remind that Shirai competed a significantly simplified floor routine, at times even feeling like it was prepared in a rush, for his standards in the individual floor finals. Shirai’s floor-routine-D-scores till then in this quad were always consistently valued 7.2 or 7.1 previously, but at these WC, it was reduced to 6.8. Although that D-score was still the highest among all finalists, the opening loss of up to 0.4 from the routine’s combined total was sufficient to effectively lose the gold, but won him silver instead in 2018. Winner Dalaloyan, even with a comparably lower 6.2 routine difficulty, did outscore Shirai in execution but just by 0.034 at the end. It may also be worth informing that Shirai always executed the same two vaults—first a “Yurchenko”–then a forward-entry “Tsukahara”—in each individual vault event final at all but one of the FIG’s 2013–2018 major events (every WC but not 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where he captured bronze after he upgraded to the Shirai 2 on vault, or 3½-twisting Yurchenko, for the backward-entry skill), competing better generally from one year to the next. Shirai had continued improving on the standings in the individual vault finals every year. In 2013–2015, Shirai placed fourth, fourth and seventh while in 2017–2018, he won the gold and bronze medals.

On April 7, 2019, Shirai began his season competing at the FIG Individual All-Around World Cup 2019 or 2019 Tokyo World Cup in Tokyo, Japan. Like in 2018, Shirai was supposed to start competition at the 2019 American Cup, but withdrew to treat a left ankle injury,[17] which he sustained about a week before he started travelling. Due to the injury, Shirai simplified certain skills in his routines for the competition here in Tokyo, which became especially noticeable when he performed on floor—his strongest signature event—as he recycled, using portions of his past routines. Changes included starting his floor routine with a RO–BH–3½ twist–punch double twist opening pass instead of the Shirai 3, one of two hardest floor skills in MAG, and ending with only a triple twist last pass instead of the Shirai, his infamous quad twist. In the end, Shirai failed to defend his gold medal from last year, but managed to capture bronze with the combined score of 82.964, despite still recovering from injury. The 2018 bronze medallist, Sam Mikulak of the United States (86.599), improved his standings, and won gold. Japan’s Wataru Tanigawa (85.665) defended his silver. Sport analyst Tim Daggett opined Shirai as “man, myth, legend—capable of doing...many things...people thought were...literally impossible before...” in gymnastics.[18]

On April 26–28, 2019, Shirai competed at the 2019 All-Japan AA Championships, one of two closely held AA-only events in Chofu, Tokyo, Japan. Shirai had qualified for event finals in 22nd place, finishing in 30th. Shirai also managed only one score in the top three on any apparatus, second highest on floor (14.533) behind Kazuki Minami (14.633), who just competed on floor. This event's respective gold, silver and bronze medallists—Kakeru Tanigawa with a combined score of 84.699, Kazuma Kaya with a combined score of 84.664, and Kazuyuki Takeda with a combined score of 84.498—had Tanigawa managing the second highest score for pommel horse while Takeda had achieved the third highest for still rings too. After assessing their winning scores, it shows there is much to be desired in being able to post numbers that are above average for every apparatus. Shirai's remaining scores in that final—12.900 on pommel horse, 12.800 on still rings, 14.166 on vault, 13.733 on parallel bars, 11.300 on the horizontal bar, and 79.432 for the total AA combined score. Injury had persisted to adversely affect the recent competition performances, and thus reflected in the results. Event number differences between top apparatus scores and Shirai's were particularly wide on pommel horse, still rings and the horizontal bar.

On May 18–19, 2019, Shirai competed at the 2019 NHK Trophy, also in Chofu, Tokyo, Japan—repeating his 2018 participation at this AA-only event. Due to lingering injury issues with the left ankle, he was unable to perform as well in the competition in comparison to most others, which would also include his performance here last year. Shirai placed 23rd with a 243.794 combined score. He was unable to achieve a top three score on any of the apparatuses, not even on his signatures of floor or vault. Shirai's scores on each respective apparatus were 14.500 on floor, 12.533 on pommel horse, 12.800 on still rings, 14.566 on vault, 14.066 on parallel bars, and 13.066 on high bar. Kakeru Tanigawa (254.363), Wataru Tanigawa (254.128) and Kazuma Kaya (254.126), who won their gold, silver and bronze,[19] were unable too to score, if at all, more than only one of the top three numbers on any apparatus, which may also indicate that none of their 2019 gymnasts was able to do particularly well this year at this competition—Kakeru Tanigawa was only able to score the second highest number (14.733) on floor, Wataru Tanigawa was also just able to make the third highest (14.866) on vault, and just like Shirai, Kazuma Kaya was likewise not able to post a top three number on any one of the apparatuses at this event too.

On June 21–23, 2019, Shirai competed at the 2019 All-Japan Apparatus Championships in Takasaki, Japan, hoping he would do well enough to secure a spot on the Japanese national team, and compete at the 2019 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. It was ultimately not meant to be his year though. Shirai had qualified into the individual event finals specifically on floor exercise, vault and the horizontal bar in second, fourth and sixth respectively. In these finals, he had finished in third (14.900), fifth (14.433) and eighth (11.200) place, respectively for each of these three apparatuses too. Finishing ahead of Shirai on floor exercise were Kazuki Minami with a total score of 15.033, and Naoto Hayasaka with a total score of 15.000. Their top finisher on vault was Keitoro Okubo, posting the average combined score of 15.233, and the winner of the horizontal bar was Hirohito Kahama with a total score of 14.766. Shirai's floor D-score numbers had remained on top among all the finalists. However, his execution needed some additional work, and could have been cleaner, which was thus reflected on the routine's E-score. Shirai's vault D-score values were comparatively lesser—only one with the lowest 5.2—and needed higher base numbers before he could seriously challenge the top vaulters.

For the first time since his international-competition debut at the 2013 WC, Shirai had failed to qualify for the Japanese men's national AG team, and participate in the 2019 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, which was held on October 4–13, 2019. Shirai's performance was slowed for most of the 2019 season by a very stubborn injury to the left ankle, and thus unable to perform/compete his best at the 2019 All-Japan Apparatus Championships—results there and at the 2019 NHK Trophy determined gymnasts’ eligibility to join team Japan at the 2019 WC. Shirai's best chance was to secure one of two spots available for individual event specialists—namely on his two signature apparatuses of floor exercise and vault. However, he was just able to place third on floor exercise, plus fifth on vault to miss qualifying for these WC, resulting in his inability to defend 2018's team bronze, and individual silver on floor and bronze on vault. As Shirai was not the only high-profile absentee, Japan had sent a fairly inexperienced men's team with their most decorated member, Kōhei Uchimura, also missing from the 2019 WC due to injury. Uchimura was struggling and attempting then still a return to past winning ways since tearing his, also left, ankle ligaments in qualifying on AA's vault at the 2017 WC. Without Japan’s full team in Stuttgart, the men's competition was dominated mostly by athletes from Russia or other former Soviet states with sporadic individual final being won by a gymnast from other countries. The individual AA event's defending champion for men was Artur Dalaloyan of Russia, placing second on the individual AA and vault events behind countryman Nikita Nagornyy. Led by Simone Biles, women's competition was dominated by Americans. Japan’s top female gymnast, Mai Murakami, was unable to defend the 2018 individual AA silver and floor bronze she won after she missed the required pre-WC 2019 NHK Trophy due to a back injury.

Due to infectious implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Japanese prime minister, Shinzō Abe, announced in March 2020 together in a joint statement that the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, could not occur during the original period of July 24–August 9, 2020, citing public health concerns, and was postponed a year then to happen on July 23–August 8, 2021.[20] The IOC updated Olympics will be cancelled if new dates untenable. As of this time, no one knows for sure if the national federation of Japan or any country could still be sending team members consisting of similar athletes a year later. Gymnasts accurately manage peaks in their performances to follow four-year-cycle timetables, and target specific periods for the Olympics, but because of this delay, unlike Shirai, highly decorated athletes—namely Biles and Uchimura who are already considered by most to be the greatest gymnasts of all time—might simply retire. North Korea’s vault champ Ri Se Gwang left in February 2020, skipping Tokyo. Japan earlier qualified the full four men for the team event finals with team bronze win at 2018’s WC—Shirai contributed three scores on floor, vault and high bar to total. Their women also qualified, placing top nine in team qualifications at 2019’s WC.[21]

On July 23–August 8, 2021, due to severe implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, the earlier postponed 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, soon approaches. Due to complications of that epidemic globally, four also previously postponed World Cup series competitions, one Apparatus World Cup (Doha) and three All-Around World Cups (Stuttgart, Birmingham and Tokyo), from 2020 to 2021 have now been accepted towards Olympic qualification through the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup series route between March 20 and May 4, 2021, but the Stuttgart All-Around World Cup competition on March 20–21, 2021, has later ended up being cancelled. On October 18–24, 2021, the 2021 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships remains to happen with Olympics in 2021 too. Usually, no WC occurs in Olympic years. The unavoidable postponement of Olympics with all logistics of the WC has caused two major events to be cramped and held in the same year. Shirai will try for both. 2021’s WC was first assigned to Copenhagen, Denmark, but their national federation withdrew from hosting in July 2020, citing epidemic’s negative economic impact. Kitakyushu, Japan, was announced as the replacement in November 2020. Denmark had hosted the event before, but not in Copenhagen, in Aarhus at the 2006 WC.