My Olympic hero - Kosuke Kitajima

LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 04: Silver medallists Ryosuke Irie, Kosuke Kitajima, Takeshi Matsuda and Takuro Fujii of Japan pose on the podium during the medal ceremony for the Men's 4x100m Meldey Relay Final on Day 8 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Aquatics Centre on August 4, 2012 in London, England. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Kosuke Kitajima participated in Olympic Games consecutively
f our times. His longtime efforts really inspired me.

I paid attention to Kitajima, who was a consecutive gold medalist in men’s breaststroke at the Athens and Beijing Olympics. Unfortunately, he didn’t get any medals in the individual events in the London Olympics. However, he has been in the spotlight, because of his diligent efforts to improve his swimming skills. The other day, a TV programme showed how he studied about his form and put it into practice strictly. His swimming form with large strokes was checked and incorporated by a lot of swimmers in other countries. I’ve also heard that his great enthusiasm for swimming inspired the Japanese young swimmers, especially the swimmers of 400-meter medley relay team, who respected Kitajima, and wanted to get a good result for him. They all did their best and won the silver medal.

I wonder if he makes a fifth challenge. Maybe, not.
Besides competition activity, he established a swimming school.

By the way, don’t you think Japan got the good results in team competitions, not just swimming? I think that they were very tenacious, probably because they received the influence of the earthquake disaster.

Posted by Chinami