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

My favorite Olympic memory

 Kōhei Uchimura is a Japanese artistic gymnast.  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Olympic scene which I liked the most was when Uchimura won in the individual combined gymnastics.
Uchimura started gymnastics at the age of three and he has won many competitions since then. His parents run a gymnastic school and he has been practicing gymnastics there.

Now he has won the world gymnastic championship three times in a row. In the Beijing Olympics Uchimura couldn't get a gold medal and he ended in silver. His dream was to to get a gold medal in the Olympics. This year, in the London Olympics, he finished his performance with a perfect landing and he was able to win a gold medal. I'm glad that he has won a gold medal.

 Takuro

My favorite photo

One of my favourite photos is of a woman traveling from USA .

I took the photo in october 2004 at Narita Airport.　I just was coming back Japan from San Francisco. She was going by same aircraft. Narita Airport was crowded by a lot of journalists. I took a picture near than journalists.

I had business trip with coworker, and I went to Sacramento city for one week. When we returned, I saw the woman at San Francisco Airport. I felt that I had seen the woman somewhere before.

Everyone called the woman Q-chan . She was a marathon runner who won the gold medal in the Sydney Olympic games. She debuted solo with independent a team just time. So she was returning from the training in USA.

I keep this photo on my pc. She wasn't chosen for the Beijing Olympics, although I hope she keeps Q-chan smile.