Kosuke Kitajima

Kosuke Kitajima
Personal information
Full name Kosuke Kitajima
Nationality  Japan
Born September 22, 1982 (1982-09-22) (age 29)
Tokyo
Height 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Weight 73 kg (160 lb; 11.5 st)
Sport
Sport Swimming
Stroke(s) Breaststroke
In this Japanese name, the family name is "Kitajima".

Kosuke Kitajima (北島 康介 Kitajima Kōsuke?, born September 22, 1982 in Tokyo) is a Japanese multiple Olympic gold medalist breaststroke swimmer. He won gold medals for the men's 100 m and 200 m breaststroke at both the Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 Olympics.[6]

Contents

Major achievements

Kitajima is a decorated swimmer in the world championships and was the world record holder in the 100 m breaststroke that he set in the 2008 Beijing Olympics – this mark has since been bettered by Brenton Rickard. He is also bronze medal winner in the same Olympics in the 4×100 m medley relay. He edged out his main rival Brendan Hansen who finished fourth while Kitajima won the gold medal and set the new world record.

He received four gold medals and two bronze medals in 2004 and 2008 Olympics.

His most significant rival on the breaststroke is the American swimmer Brendan Hansen. They dueled at events such as the 2005 World Championships, 2004 Summer Olympics and 2003 World Championships. Kitajima set both world records for 100 m and 200 m breaststroke in the latter occasion. Later his best in 200 m was overcome by Dimitri Komornikov and then by Hansen, who also broke Kitajima's record in the 100 m. Kitajima regained the world record (58.91) in the 100 m at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Kitajima regained the 200 m breaststroke world record in June 2008 at the Japan Open. His time of 2:07.51 shaved nearly a second off the previous record of 2:08.50 set by Hansen in 2006.[7]

During the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Kitajima generated buzz for his primal screams of exuberance after edging out Hansen in the 100 m and 200 m breaststroke for the gold. At a pool side interview (3'24") following his victory in the 100 m, Kosuke Kitajima also popularised the phrase 'cho-kimochi-ii,' meaning "I feel really good." The word went on to win the 2004 U-Can Neoligisms and Vogue Words contest.[8]

Medals

Personal bests

In long course swim pools Kitajima's bests are:

See also

References

  1. ^ "2004 Olympic Games swimming results". CNN. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/2004/schedules/117BySport.html. Retrieved 2007-07-22. 
  2. ^ "Montreal 2005 Results". Archived from the original on 2007-01-28. http://web.archive.org/web/20070128064425/http://www.fina.org/events/WC/Montreal_2005/results/sw.php. Retrieved 2007-06-09. 
  3. ^ "12th FINA World Championships". Archived from the original on 2007-06-06. http://web.archive.org/web/20070606111744/http://www.fina.org/events/WC/Melbourne_2007/results/swimming.php. Retrieved 2007-06-09. 
  4. ^ "2002 World Championships – Short Course Swim Rankings results". http://www.swimrankings.net/index.php?page=meetDetail&meetId=8866485. Retrieved 2007-07-24. 
  5. ^ "2002 Asian Games results of Japan". http://www.joc.or.jp/int_games/asia/2002busan/seiseki_suiei.html#01. 
  6. ^ Clarey, Christopher (August 13, 2008). "Kitajima Completes Breaststroke Double, Again". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/sports/olympics/14swimweb.html?hp. 
  7. ^ "Kitajima supplants American Hansen's world breaststroke mark". http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/swimming/news/story?id=3432029&campaign=rsssrch&source=swimming. Retrieved 2008-06-10. 
  8. ^ "2004 Annual Grand Prix". Archived from the original on 2007-03-15. http://web.archive.org/web/20070315222443/http://www.jiyu.co.jp/singo/nendo/2004.html. Retrieved 2007-07-24. 

External links

Records
Preceded by
Mike Barrowman		 Men's 200 metre breaststroke
world record holder (long course)
October 2, 2002 – June 15, 2003		 Succeeded by
Dimitri Komornikov
Preceded by
Dimitri Komornikov		 Men's 200 metre breaststroke
world record holder (long course)
July 24, 2003 – July 11, 2004		 Succeeded by
Brendan Hansen
Preceded by
Brendan Hansen		 Men's 200 metre breaststroke
world record holder (long course)
June 8, 2008 – July 30, 2009		 Succeeded by
Christian Sprenger
Preceded by
Brendan Hansen		 Men's 100 metre breaststroke
world record holder (long course)
August 11, 2008 – July 27, 2009		 Succeeded by
Brenton Rickard
Awards
Preceded by
Ian Thorpe		 Pacific Rim Swimmer of the Year
2003		 Succeeded by
Ian Thorpe
Preceded by
Park Tae-Hwan		 Pacific Rim Swimmer of the Year
2007–2008		 Succeeded by
Zhang Lin
Preceded by
Zhang Lin		 Pacific Rim Swimmer of the Year
2010		 Succeeded by
Sun Yang