Uzair Chowdhury won the silver medal in the men’s individual all-around at the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar on Tuesday. The British gymnast, who topped qualifying, scored 79.132 points in the final to claim his first individual world-level medal. At just 17 years old, Chowdhury is continuing to demonstrate his progress after several European junior titles and adds another medal to the bronze he won with the United Kingdom in the team competition.
Uzair Chowdhury claims silver despite a mistake on pommel horse
Having topped qualifying with 80.798 points, Uzair Chowdhury went into the final as the favourite. The British gymnast had built his lead through a very complete performance and, above all, without any major errors: 13.300 points on floor, 13.433 on pommel horse, 13.133 on rings, 13.933 on vault, 14.133 on parallel bars and 12.866 on horizontal bar.
The final quickly changed the picture, however. After opening on floor with 13.800 points, half a point more than he had scored in qualifying, Chowdhury encountered significant difficulty on pommel horse. During an ambitious routine, his leg caught the apparatus, forcing him to stop and then restart his exercise. He scored just 11.733 points, 1.700 points fewer than in qualifying. It was a costly mistake that immediately moved him away from gold, but it did not prevent him from remaining in contention for a place on the podium.
Most importantly, the British gymnast responded perfectly afterwards. He limited the damage with 12.900 points on rings, which is his weakest apparatus, before scoring 13.733 on vault. But it was on parallel bars that he produced his best performance of the competition. With 14.200 points, Chowdhury received the highest score awarded on any apparatus throughout the entire final. It was a perfectly controlled routine, capped by a stuck landing that allowed him to remain in medal contention.
He then scored 12.766 points on horizontal bar. Although slightly below his qualifying score, this result was nevertheless enough to secure silver with 79.132 points. The British gymnast therefore finished narrowly ahead of Japan’s Ikki Nishihara, who took third place with 79.065 points, just 0.067 points behind.
The title ultimately went to Daniil Smirnov with 81.298 points. Sixth in qualifying with just 76.764 points, the Russian gymnast had been more than four points behind Chowdhury heading into the final. With the scores reset, however, he produced a remarkable comeback. His most important performance came on horizontal bar: after scoring just 10.366 points in qualifying, he delivered a clean routine this time, earning 13.200 points. He also improved on pommel horse, moving from 13.533 to 13.966 points.
This medal above all confirms progress that has already been visible over several seasons. Chowdhury won gold on parallel bars and with the team at the 2024 European Junior Championships, before claiming three titles at the 2025 European Youth Olympic Festival, in the team competition, on rings and on parallel bars, as well as bronze in the individual all-around. He also finished seventh on parallel bars at the 2025 Junior World Championships. In 2026, he once again won gold with the team and on parallel bars at the European Junior Championships.
Until Dakar, his main individual medals had therefore been won on the European stage. This silver medal in the individual all-around at the Youth Olympic Games therefore represents his first individual medal at a world-level event, another step forward in the progress of the young British gymnast. It also adds to the bronze won by the United Kingdom in the team all-around in Dakar. Chowdhury, Benjamin Porter and Lucas Scully finished behind China and Japan, the two strongest nations in men’s gymnastics. With 153.763 points, the United Kingdom finished ahead of Germany, who placed fourth by almost five points, while China took gold with 158.463 points ahead of Japan on 156.230 points.
