Enrique Tomás González Sepúlveda (born 22 November 1985) is a Chilean artistic gymnast and kinesiologist, widely regarded as the most successful gymnast in Chilean history. His competitive specialties are the vault and floor exercise apparatuses. He became the first athlete from his country to earn medals at the Pan American Games and at FIG World Cup events, and the first Chilean gymnast to qualify for the Summer Olympic Games, doing so after winning floor exercise at the London Games' test event. At the 2012 Games he became the first Chilean gymnast to reach an Olympic final, placing fourth in both floor exercise and vault. A skill he pioneered on floor exercise — a piked triple-twisting double back somersault — was formally added to the FIG Code of Points and named the "González" in his honor in 2018.
González served as president of the Chilean Gymnastics Federation from 2017, qualified as a kinesiologist in 2019, and operates his own gymnastics academy in Santiago, which he founded in 2016. He publicly came out as gay in 2023 and married his longtime partner, Juanes, later that year. After retiring from top-level competition following the 2020 Summer Olympics, he returned to the international circuit in February 2026, competing at the FIG World Cup in Cottbus, Germany, at age 40.
Early life González was born in Santiago to Enrique González and Marcela Sepúlveda, both of whom were gymnasts. He has said he became fascinated with the sport as a young child after watching the artistic gymnastics competitions at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, and began training obsessively soon afterward. He completed his primary and secondary education at Colegio San Juan Evangelista in Las Condes, and trained from a young age with Club Deportivo Universidad Católica. He later studied kinesiology at Universidad Finis Terrae, graduating in 2019 while still competing internationally.
Gymnastics career González's accolades include nine FIG World Cup medals (four gold, four silver, one bronze), six Pan American Games medals (one gold, three silver, two bronze), and seven South American Games medals (two gold, two silver, three bronze). He competed in eight World Championships (2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2015 and 2017), achieving notable placements including seventh (2009), sixth (2011), eighth (2015) and fifth (2017) in floor exercise finals; in the all-around, he placed 15th in 2010 and 22nd in 2011.
Early career and rise (2002–2008) González first drew international attention as a teenager, winning silver medals in vault and floor exercise at the 2002 South American Games in Curitiba, Brazil. In 2004, formed at Club Deportivo Universidad Católica, he was named best Chilean gymnast by the specialized press after taking bronze in floor exercise at a World Cup event in La Serena. He also won a bronze medal in vault at a 2006 World Cup event in Moscow, and a silver medal in floor exercise at that year's South American Games in Buenos Aires.
At the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, González won silver in vault and bronze in floor exercise, becoming the first Chilean gymnast to win medals at the competition. That same year he took gold in floor exercise at the World Cup event in Glasgow with a score of 15.800, and in 2008 he won a silver medal in vault at the Barcelona World Cup with 15.900 points. Despite his rising international profile, the lack of a full competitive Chilean team meant he did not qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Consolidation and Olympic qualification (2009–2011)
In 2009, González became the first gymnast to perform two new elements at the maximum difficulty rating of 17 points: a round-off triple tucked back somersault, and a Yurchenko-entry double-twisting triple somersault vault. He subsequently reached the floor exercise final at the 2009 World Championships in London, finishing seventh with 15.225 points — his first appearance in a World Championship final and an early sign of his Olympic potential. Later that year, following an administrative dispute with the Chilean Gymnastics Federation over his late registration for the Stuttgart World Cup, he won a silver medal in floor exercise with 15.200 points, tying with Israel's Alexander Shatilov. In recognition of his rising profile, Chilean philanthropist Leonardo Farkas donated approximately 80 million pesos (around US$160,000) worth of training equipment to González in November 2009.
González won bronze in floor exercise at the 2010 Stuttgart World Cup, then took his first World Cup gold in vault at the Glasgow World Cup in November 2010 with 15.937 points, ahead of Britain's Theo Seager and the Netherlands' Jeffrey Wammes, and added a silver medal in floor exercise at the same event. On 20 December 2010 he was honored by the Chilean Sports Journalists' Circle with the "Cóndor de Oro" as the country's best athlete of the year.
González's best season came in 2011. He won double gold at the Paris World Cup in March, taking first place in both vault and floor exercise, and in April 2011 he became the first Chilean gymnast to be ranked world number one by the International Gymnastics Federation in both floor exercise and vault. At the 10th South American Artistic Gymnastics Championships, held in Santiago in August 2011, he won six medals, including the all-around title with a total of 88.850 points, plus golds in floor exercise and vault, silvers in rings and parallel bars, and a bronze in the team event. At the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara he won silver medals in floor exercise and vault and bronze in the all-around.
Road to London and Olympic fourth places (2012) González qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London after finishing sixth in the all-around at the Olympic test event in January 2012, winning gold in floor exercise at that meet. Ahead of the Games, he added a bronze medal in vault at the Cottbus World Cup and a further bronze in floor exercise and gold in vault at the Osijek World Cup in Croatia. In May 2012 he was awarded Chile's National Sports Prize (Premio Nacional del Deporte de Chile) for 2011.
On 28 July 2012, González became the first Chilean gymnast to compete at an Olympic Games. He qualified for two event finals, placing third in vault (16.149) and sixth in floor exercise (15.533) during qualification. In the floor exercise final on 5 August, he placed fourth with 15.366 points, behind China's Zou Kai, Japan's Kohei Uchimura and Russia's Denis Abliazin. The next day, in the vault final, he again finished fourth, with 16.183 points — his execution score of 9.383 was the highest among the finalists — behind South Korea's Hak Seon Yang, Russia's Abliazin and Ukraine's Igor Radivilov. In December 2012, González and Paralympic athlete Cristián Valenzuela were jointly named Chile's athletes of the year.
Later career (2013–2020) González continued competing internationally through the mid-2010s, winning further World Cup medals, including gold in vault at Anadia, Portugal, in 2013, and gold in floor exercise at São Paulo, Brazil, in 2015 and 2016. At the 2014 South American Games in Santiago he won gold medals in both floor exercise and vault, and he added floor exercise gold at that year's Pan American Sports Festival, also held in Chile, and at the 2014 Pan American Championships in Mississauga, Canada.
Four years after London, González advanced to the vault final at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, finishing seventh. He returned to the World Championship floor exercise final in 2017, placing fifth, and won floor exercise gold at that year's Varna World Cup and bronze at the 2017 Pan American Individual Event Championships in Lima. In 2018 he won floor exercise gold at both the South American Games in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and the Pan American Championships in Lima, Peru. His last major title came at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, where he won gold in floor exercise, and he added a further World Cup gold in Koper, Slovenia, and a bronze in vault at Osijek, Croatia, that year.
His final Olympic appearance came at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo (held in 2021), where he competed in the floor exercise but did not advance to the final. After Tokyo, he stepped back from top-level competition to focus on his gymnastics academy and other projects, and by 2023 had spoken publicly of considering formal retirement.
The "González" vault and floor pass While training as a junior around 2000, González developed a piked triple-twisting double back somersault on floor exercise, which he first performed publicly at the 2003 World Championships in Anaheim, California. The skill was gradually adopted by other elite gymnasts internationally from 2012 onward, and in September 2018 the International Gymnastics Federation formally added it to its Code of Points, naming it the "González" after him — a first for a Chilean gymnast.
Return to competition (2026) In February 2026, at age 40, González announced that he would come out of a multi-year competitive hiatus to represent Chile once more, entering the FIG World Cup in Cottbus, Germany — a meet he described as one of gymnastics' most storied events, dubbed the "tournament of masters." He prepared for the competition with a training stint alongside the Spanish national team in Madrid before traveling to Germany, and financed the bulk of the trip's costs himself, saying he had received little institutional support for the comeback.
Competing on 19 February 2026, González placed ninth of 34 gymnasts in the floor exercise qualification round with a score of 13.500, narrowly missing the eight-man final; the last qualifying spot went to Kazakhstan's Dmitriy Patanin with 13.533 points, and González was named first reserve for the final. At 40, he was the oldest of the 34 competitors in the men's field by 12 years over the next-oldest entrant, Israel's Artem Dolgopyat, and was outdone in career longevity across the full event only by Uzbekistan's Oksana Chusovitina on the women's side. He described the comeback as an opportunity to enjoy his final competitive appearances rather than to chase results, citing an adjusted, more cautious training approach befitting his age.
The following month, González took part in the official announcement of Santiago's bid to host the 2030 Youth Olympic Games, an event led by Chilean president José Antonio Kast at the La Moneda Palace. González voiced support for the bid and for the leadership of the country's sports minister, Natalia Duco.
Sports administration González was elected president of the Chilean Gymnastics Federation in April 2017, a role in which he has continued to advocate for the sport's development in Chile alongside his own competitive and academy work.
Personal life
Coming out and marriage González publicly came out as gay during an interview with La Tercera on 15 July 2023, coinciding with the release of his autobiography, Campeón ("Champion"). Later that month he entered into a civil marriage with his partner of several years, Juanes, a Colombian national; the couple subsequently held a religious ceremony on 24 November 2023 at the Monte Magdalena events venue in El Monte, Chile. In a 2024 interview, González said the couple had been together for about seven years before marrying, having met by chance at a mutual friend's birthday party.
Television and other activities