Daichi Suzuki

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Olympic medal record
Men’s Swimming
Gold	Seoul 1988	100m Backstroke

Daichi Suzuki (born March 10, 1967) is a former backstroke swimmer from Japan, who surprised by winning the 100m backstroke at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.

A budding high school swimmer in his native country, Suzuki, a national champion backstroker looking to further his career at the international level, noticed an entrepreneur named Jesse Vasallo was performing, and realized he could implement the same technique in his race. Suzuki combined his creativity and audacity with hints provided by Vasallo, and began work on developing backstroke start that would cover the first 25m entirely underwater.

At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, Suzuki unveiled the new underwater tactic for the first time. He proved to be the fastest in the world for the first 25m, but it did not draw much attention as he barely was ranked within top 25 in the world and did not make the finals in 100m backstroke. Some who saw his tactic criticized it as a silly move that left the swimmer into oxygen debt and caused a swimmer to “die” in the latter part of the race.

By 1986, Suzuki was one of the top ten 100m backstrokers in the world. At the 1987 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, he blasted out to a lead with underwater dolphin kicks in the 100m back but faded to a third place finish. While the underwater dolphin kicks were beginning to draw more attention as viable strategic tool, it has its share of doubters.

One of the believers of the underwater dolphin kick though was David Berkoff from the United States. He combined thirty miles of running each week with rigorous pool workouts to develop the underwater dolphin kicks. Berkoff was planning on extending his dolphin kick to 35m from the start and 15m from the turn. At the American Olympic Trials in 1988, Berkoff broke the world record in 100m back being underwater for the first 35m and 15m from the turn, exactly half the racing distance.

Berkoff was the leading contender to win the gold medal in 100m back at the 1988 Summer Olympics, and then became a prohibitive favorite after re-setting the world record in the prelims. In the finals, the focus of the many spectators was by how much Berkoff would further better his world record with his underwater dolphin kicks. However, in a major upset, Berkoff was beaten for the gold medal by Suzuki.

Suzuki, who four years prior introduced the underwater dolphin kicks to the world by being submerged for 25m, won the race by matching Berkoff in underwaters by using what he calls the “Vasallo kicks” for 35m, 10m beyond his normal underwater distance, for the first and only time in his career. With the success of Berkoff and Suzuki broadcasted around the globe during prime time, the flood gate was open and the swimmers around the world rushed to apply the same underwater strategy in their races.

At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, Mark Tewksbury of Canada, who only five years prior stated his dislike for the underwaters, won the gold medal in 100m back by using the underwater dolphin kicks for 25m from the start and 15m from the turn.

The theoretical principle was quite simple. If the speed generated through underwater dolphin kick is faster than the speed generated through backstroke swim on the surface, underwater dolphin kick should be the preferred method of swim – assuming swimmers can hold the breath. It didn’t take long for some swimmers to improve their swimming that the speed generated through underwaters could be faster than the speed generated through swimming butterfly.