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Gymnastics: Olympic champ Daiki Hashimoto diagnosed with mysterious disease
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Daiki Hashimoto, a winner of three Olympic gymnastics gold medals, said Monday he has been diagnosed with a high likelihood of so-called Kikuchi disease, which is characterized by a benign inflammation of the lymph nodes.
The 23-year-old, who is in Tokyo to attend a training camp, said he received the diagnosis after a blood test in May, when he competed in the NHK Trophy despite feeling unwell. The disease is of unknown cause.
"I had similar symptoms when I was in high school, and I was diagnosed with a recurrence," said Hashimoto, who won the all-around and horizontal bar titles at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 before adding his third Olympic gold in last year's team event in Paris.
His initial diagnosis was influenza, but his fever did not subside even after medication.
"My doctor is trying to come up with what to do for me to get better."
