April 10, 2009
STANFORD, Calif. - Redshirt senior Sho Nakamori will find out Friday night if he will become Stanford's fourth Nissen-Emery Award winner, as the annual award will be handed out at Thursday evening's NCAA banquet at the NCAA Tournament in Minneapolis.
Nakamori is the Cardinal's 17th gymnast to be named a finalist for the award, which is given annually to the nation's most outstanding senior gymnast and is considered the most coveted award in collegiate gymnastics.
Nakamori has had an exceptional gymnastics career at Stanford and in international competitions. Sho was recently named to the Senior Men's National Team for the third consecutive year, is a 2-time World Cup team member, and was a part of the World Championship Team in 2007. He is also a five-time NCAA All-American, earning two awards in 2006 on floor exercise and in all-around, the same year that he captured second place in floor exercise at the NCAA Individual Event Finals; and three awards in 2008 in all-around and on pommel horse and parallel bars, taking third in all-around and on horse, and finishing sixth on parallel bars.
He was recently named the 2009 MPSF Gymnast of the Year after helping lift Stanford past defending national champion Oklahoma at the 2009 MPSF Championships on April 4, 2009 by posting six scores above 15.0, nabbing four individual titles, and setting four career-best scores and one season-best mark that contributed to Stanford team score of 363.75, the squad's highest total of the year.
His collegiate high marks are 9.6 in floor, 9.45 in pommel horse, 9.2 in still rings, 9.55 in parallel bars, 9.65 in horizontal bar, and 56.05 in all-around. After the change to the FIG scoring system, he posted highs of 15.450 on floor exercise, 15.25 on pommel horse, 15.350 on still rings, 15.55 on vault, 15.6 on parallel bars, 15.4 on horizontal bar, and 91.85 in all-around.
He is currently ranked first on parallel bars, second in all-around, fourth on floor exercise and pommel horse, fifth on horizontal bar, and ninth on still rings in the GymInfo National Rankings.
Nakamori has also excelled off the mats and is also a two-time MPSF Academic All-Conference award recipient and a 2008 CGA Academic All-American. He is majoring in international studies and Japanese and has maintained a 3.22 cumulative grade-point-average.
The Albany, Calif. native has kept himself busy when not in the gym or classroom and has worked as a research assistant in the Naval Postgraduate School specializing on the state of Japanese politics, while also volunteering at the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and with Relay For Life.
Nakamori has served as a coach for many young gymnasts and has also spent time working as a judge for youth tournaments. He also helps tutor both school-children and graduate students at Stanford in Japanese as well as various subjects.
The Nissen-Emery Award is named in honor of George Nissen, a three-time NCAA Champion at the University of Iowa, for his contributions to the sport, and for Dr. Bob Emery, the 1969 recipient of the Nissen Award.
In addition to displaying gymnastics excellence, the winner also must fulfill the following requirements: He must be an example of good sportsmanship and fair play and must maintain a high standard of scholarship throughout his college career. The award is inscribed with the motto: "The true champion seeks excellence physically, mentally, socially and morally."