Makoto Sakamoto

Makoto Sakamoto was the top American male gymnast of the mid-to-late 1960s. His greatest feat came at the 1965 AAU Championship, when he became the only US gymnast to sweep the events, winning seven titles – all-around and on all six apparatuses. Sakamoto was also AAU all-around champion in 1963-64. Sakamoto competed for the US at the 1964 and 1972 Olympics and the 1966 and 1970 World Championships. He also competed at the Universiade in 1965, 1967, and 1970, winning a bronze in all-around in 1965, a team silver in 1967 and a team bronze in 1970. Sakamoto attended Southern Cal, where he won four NCAA titles, , including the all-around, parallel bars and high in 1968, and parallel bars in 1967. He later became assistant coach at UCLA from 1976-84 and then head coach at Brigham Young University from 1987-2000. He was an assistant coach for the US at the 1984 Olympics and the 1981 and 1983 World Championships. After leaving college coaching, Sakamoto coached the San Diego All-Stars, a private gymnastic club, and later coached a club in Hawai’i. He was inducted into the US Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1986..