View source for Ri Se-gwang

{{short description|North Korean artistic gymnast}}
{{Infobox gymnast
| name            = Ri Se-gwang
| image           =
| image_size      = 
| caption         = 
| full_name       = Ri Se-gwang
| nickname        = 
| country         = {{PRK}}
| birth_date      = {{birth date and age|1985|1|21}}
| birth_place     = [[South Hamgyong Province|South Hamgyong]], [[North Korea]]
| height          = 155 cm
| discipline      = MAG
| natlteam        = 2006–2020 (PRK)
| club            = [[April 25 Sports Club]]
| gym             = 
| collegeteam     = 
| headcoach       = 
| assistcoach     = 
| formercoach     = 
| choreographer   = 
| music           = 
| retired         = 
| eponymousskills = '''''Ri Se Gwang''''' (vault): full-twisting double Tsukahara<br />
'''''Ri Se Gwang 2''''' (vault): front handspring double piked ½ turn
| show-medals     = yes
| medaltemplates  = {{MedalCount
|[[Summer Olympics|Olympic Games]]|1|0|0
|[[World Artistic Gymnastics Championships|World Championships]]|3|0|1
|[[Asian Games]]|1|0|0
|[[Asian Gymnastics Championships|Asian Championships]]|2|1|1
|[[Universiade|Summer Universiade]]|0|1|1
|[[East Asian Games]]|0|0|1
|'''Total'''|'''7'''|'''2'''|'''4'''
}}
{{MedalSport|Men's [[artistic gymnastics]]}}
{{MedalCountry | {{PRK}} }}
{{MedalCompetition|[[Olympic Games]]}}
{{MedalGold|[[2016 Summer Olympics|2016 Rio de Janeiro]]|[[Gymnastics at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's vault|Vault]]}}
{{MedalCompetition|[[World Artistic Gymnastics Championships|World Championships]]}}
{{MedalGold  |[[2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships|2014 Nanning]]|Vault}}
{{MedalGold  |[[2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships|2015 Glasgow]]|Vault}}
{{MedalGold|[[2018 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships|2018 Doha]]|Vault}}
{{MedalBronze|[[2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships|2007 Stuttgart]]|Vault}}
{{MedalCompetition | [[Asian Games]]}}
{{MedalGold  | [[2006 Asian Games|2006 Doha]] | [[Gymnastics at the 2006 Asian Games|Vault]] }}
{{MedalCompetition | [[Asian Gymnastics Championships|Asian Championships]]}}
{{MedalGold  | [[2012 Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships|2012 Putian]] | Vault}}
{{MedalGold  | [[2012 Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships|2012 Putian]] | Rings}}
{{MedalSilver|[[2006 Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships|2006 Surat]] | Vault}}
{{MedalBronze  | [[2012 Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships|2012 Putian]] | Team}}
{{MedalCompetition|[[Universiade|Summer Universiade]]}}
{{MedalSilver|[[Gymnastics at the 2009 Summer Universiade|2009 Belgrade]]|Floor Exercise}}
{{MedalBronze|[[Gymnastics at the 2009 Summer Universiade|2009 Belgrade]]|Rings}}
{{MedalCompetition | [[East Asian Games]]}}
{{MedalBronze  | [[2005 East Asian Games|2005 Macau]] | [[Gymnastics at the 2005 East Asian Games|Vault]] }} 
}}
{{Infobox Korean name
| hangul  = 리세광
| hanja   = 李世光
| rr      = I Segwang
| mr      = Ri Segwang
| context = North
| image   = 
| caption = 
}}
{{family name hatnote|Ri||lang=Korean}}

'''Ri Se-gwang''' ({{ko-hhrm|리세광}}; born January 21, 1985) is a retired [[North Korea]]n [[artistic gymnast]],<ref name="Asiad"/> representing the [[April 25 Sports Club]].<ref name="web._">{{Cite web | title = April 25 Sports Team of DPRK Proves Successful in Int'l Tournaments This Year | publisher=[[Korean Central News Agency]] | date = 13 December 2013 | access-date = 26 August 2015 | archive-date= 12 October 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141012101414/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2013/201312/news13/20131213-14ee.html | url = http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2013/201312/news13/20131213-14ee.html}}</ref> He is often considered a specialist on vault apparatus in the sport of men’s artistic gymnastics (MAG).

==Career==
Ri was the first [[North Korea]]n ever to win a gold medal on vault at the [[Asian Games]], where he performed solidly at the [[Gymnastics at the 2006 Asian Games|2006 Asian Games]] and was the first one for [[North Korea]] on that apparatus.<ref name="Asiad">{{cite news|title=DPR Korean wins men's vault gold at Asiad gymnastics|url=http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200612/07/eng20061207_329424.html|publisher=People's Daily Online (English)|date=2006-12-07|access-date=2008-07-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080929174655/http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200612/07/eng20061207_329424.html|archive-date=2008-09-29|url-status=live}}</ref> He later went on to win a bronze medal on [[vault (gymnastics)|vault]] at the [[2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships]].

In 2009, Ri successfully performed an extremely difficult new vault, a [[Tsukahara (vault)|Tsukahara]] (1/4 entry in the first flight) on the vaulting table, followed by a full twisting double backwards salto in tuck position.<ref>{{cite news|title=Ri Se Gwang training vault in slow motion|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeNaqmDiTzI|date=2009-07-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170308093019/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeNaqmDiTzI|archive-date=2017-03-08|url-status=live}}</ref> The new vault is named after Ri.<ref name="web._"/> The vault, now officially named the '''''Ri Se Gwang''''', was valued a difficulty score of 7.2 and the second highest difficulty value in the world, with [[Yang Hak Seon]]'s vault the '''''Yang Hak Seon''''' (front handspring triple twist) being the most difficult with a 7.4 start value in the previous 2009-2012 [[Code of Points (artistic gymnastics)|Code of Points]] ([[Code of Points (artistic gymnastics)|CoP]]) of the [[International Gymnastics Federation]] ([[International Gymnastics Federation|FIG]]) for MAG.

Ri competed in the [[2009 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships]] and qualified first for the individual vault final. He finished in seventh place in that event final after a fall on his first vault and going out of bounds on his second vault, with an average score of 15.650.

Together with the entire [[North Korea]]n delegation team, Ri was banned from competing in artistic gymnastics at the [[2012 Summer Olympics|2012 London Olympics]] due to persistent issues with regards to age falsification accusations of their female gymnasts. The two-year ban ended on October 5, 2012, which came just a bit too late to try make that cycle's August Olympic Games.

At the [[Gymnastics at the 2014 Asian Games|2014 Asian Games]], Ri qualified in first place ahead of the 2012 Olympic champion on vault, [[Yang Hak Seon]] of [[South Korea]], but finished just missing the bronze medal by the narrowest of margins (0.001) with an average combined score of 14.799 on the individual vault event behind [[Shek Wai Hung]] of [[Hong Kong]] (15.216), Yang Hak Seon (15.200) and Hung Xi of [[China]] (14.800).

At the [[2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships]] held in Nanning, China, Ri defeated the reigning World and Olympic Champion [[Yang Hak Seon]] after Yang crashed in both his vaults during the event final, and won the gold medal with an average combined score of 15.413 ahead of [[Ihor Radivilov]] of [[Ukraine]] (15.333), 2012 Olympic bronze medalist on vault, and [[Jacob Dalton]] from the [[United States]] (15.199). Ri won thanks to the quad's highest difficulty scores of 6.4 assigned to both his vaults, and despite incurring a 0.3 penalty for stepping out-of-bounds in his second vault.

On November 1, 2015, Ri participated in the [[2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships]] in [[Glasgow]], [[Scotland]], and successfully defended his individual vault title. He won with an average combined scored of 15.450 ahead of veteran [[Marian Drăgulescu]] of [[Romania]] (15.400) and [[Donnell Whittenburg]] of the [[United States]] (15.350).

With the defending 2012 Olympic vault champion [[Yang Hak Seon]] of [[South Korea]] out injured, Ri won gold in the individual vault final at the [[2016 Summer Olympics]] in [[Rio de Janeiro]].<ref name="Rio2016">{{cite web |url=https://www.rio2016.com/en/athlete/se-gwang-ri |title=Se Gwang Ri |access-date=15 August 2016 |work=Rio 2016 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20160815195713/https://www.rio2016.com/en/athlete/se-gwang-ri |archive-date=2016-08-15 |url-status=live }}</ref>

At the [[Gymnastics at the 2018 Asian Games|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 [[International Gymnastics Federation|FIG]] announced in February 2020 that Ri had retired from gymnastics.<ref>{{cite web |last1=International Gymnastics Federation |title=World and Olympic Vault champion Ri Se Gwang bids farewell to Gymnastics |url=https://www.gymnastics.sport/site/news/displaynews.php?idNews=2810 |access-date=7 April 2020}}</ref>

==Competitive history==

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center; font-size:100%;"
|-
! rowspan="2" class=unsortable| Year
! rowspan="2" width=41.5% class=unsortable| Competition
! colspan="2" class=unsortable| All-Around
! colspan="6" width=39% class=unsortable| Individual (Ind.) Apparatuses
|-
! class=unsortable|Team
! class=unsortable|Ind.
! class=unsortable|[[Gymnastics floor|FX]]
! class=unsortable|[[Pommel horse|PH]]
! class=unsortable|[[Gymnastics rings|SR]]
! class=unsortable|[[Gymnastics vault|VT]]
! class=unsortable|[[Gymnastics parallel bars|PB]]
! class=unsortable|[[Horizontal bar|HB]]
|-
|rowspan="1" align=center|'''2005'''|| align=left|[[Gymnastics at the 2005 East Asian Games|East Asian Games]] || || || || || || style="background:#FFDAB9;"|{{bronze3}} || || 
|-
|rowspan="2" align=center|'''2006'''|| align=left|[[2006 Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships|Asian Championships]] || || || || || || style="background:#DCE5E5"|{{silver2}} || ||
|-
| align=left |[[Gymnastics at the 2006 Asian Games|Asian Games]] || || || || || || style="background:#F7F6A8"|{{gold1}} || ||
|-
|rowspan="2" align=center|'''2007'''
|-bgcolor=#CCCCFF
| align=left | [[2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships|World Championships]] || || || || || || style="background:#FFDAB9;"|{{bronze3}} || ||
|-
|rowspan="2" align=center|'''2009'''|| align=left|[[Gymnastics at the 2009 Summer Universiade|Summer Universiade]] || || || style="background:#DCE5E5"|{{silver2}} || || style="background:#FFDAB9;"|{{bronze3}} || || ||
|-bgcolor=#CCCCFF
| align=left | [[2009 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships|World Championships]] || {{N/A}} || || || || || 7 || ||
|-
| align=center|'''2011''' || rowspan="2" colspan="9" align=center | North Korea banned from international competition
|-
| align=center|'''2012'''
|-
|rowspan="2" align=center|'''[[2014 in artistic gymnastics|2014]]'''|| align=left |[[Gymnastics at the 2014 Asian Games|Asian Games]] || || || || || || 4 || ||
|-
|-bgcolor=#CCCCFF
| align=left | [[2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships|World Championships]] || || || || || || rowspan="7" style="background:#F7F6A8"|{{gold1}} || ||
|-
|rowspan="2" align=center|'''[[2015 in artistic gymnastics|2015]]'''
|-bgcolor=#CCCCFF
| align=left | [[2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships|World Championships]] || || || || || || ||
|-
|rowspan="2" align=center|'''[[2016 in artistic gymnastics|2016]]'''
|-bgcolor=98FB98
| align=left | '''[[Gymnastics at the 2016 Summer Olympics|Olympic Games]]''' || || || || || || ||
|-
|rowspan="3" align=center|'''[[2018 in artistic gymnastics|2018]]'''
|-bgcolor=#CCCCFF
| align=left | [[2018 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships|World Championships]] || || || || || || ||
|-
| align=left |[[Gymnastics at the 2018 Asian Games|Asian Games]] || || || || || || 5 || ||
|}

==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]] ([[International Gymnastics Federation|FIG]]), in their most recent 2022–2024 [[Code of Points (artistic gymnastics)|Code of Points]] for MAG.
{|class="wikitable"
|-
! Apparatus  !! Name  !! Description  !! Difficulty !! Notes
|-
| rowspan="2" align=center|Vault || width=12%|'''''Ri Se Gwang''''' || backward full-twisting double (tucked) Tsukahara || rowspan="2" align=center|6.0 {{small|(6.4<br />originally)}} || reassessed for top difficulty to match the '''''Yang Hak Seon''''' on vault
|-
|width=12%|'''''Ri Se Gwang 2''''' || front handspring double piked salto with ½ twist || more commonly known as the vault's “'''''Drăgulescu''''' piked” in practice
|}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Sports links}}

{{Footer Olympic Champions Vault Men}}
{{NavigationWorldChampionsArtisticGymnasticsMen'sVault}}
{{Asian Games Champions Gymnastics Vault Men}}
{{NavigationAsianChampionsMAGSR}}
{{NavigationAsianChampionsMAGVT}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ri, Se-gwang}}
[[Category:1985 births]]
[[Category:Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:North Korean male artistic gymnasts]]
[[Category:Sportspeople from South Hamgyong Province]]
[[Category:Asian Games gold medalists in gymnastics]]
[[Category:Gymnasts at the 2006 Asian Games]]
[[Category:Gymnasts at the 2014 Asian Games]]
[[Category:Gymnasts at the 2018 Asian Games]]
[[Category:Asian Games gold medalists for North Korea]]
[[Category:Asian Games gymnasts for North Korea]]
[[Category:Gymnasts at the 2016 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Olympic gymnasts for North Korea]]
[[Category:Olympic gold medalists for North Korea]]
[[Category:Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Olympic medalists in gymnastics]]
[[Category:Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games]]
[[Category:Summer World University Games medalists in gymnastics]]
[[Category:FISU World University Games silver medalists for North Korea]]
[[Category:FISU World University Games bronze medalists for North Korea]]
[[Category:Originators of elements in artistic gymnastics]]
[[Category:21st-century North Korean sportsmen]]