Masao Takemoto, a member of Japan's gold-winning men's overall team gymnastics event at the 1960 Rome Olympics, died Friday of bile duct cancer, his family said Monday.
He was 87. Takemoto competed in three consecutive Olympics from the 1952 Helsinki Games and helped capture a gold medal in the men's team competition in Rome in 1960.
He later worked as a coach at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the 1972 Munich Olympics and the 1976 Montreal Olympics and contributed to guiding Japan to 10 straight titles at the Olympics and world championships.