| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men’s swimming | ||
| Competitor for Japan | ||
| Olympic Games | ||
| Silver | 1956 Melbourne | 400 m freestyle |
| Silver | 1956 Melbourne | 1500 m freestyle |
| Silver | 1960 Rome | 400 m freestyle |
| Silver | 1960 Rome | 4×200 m freestyle relay |
| Asian Games | ||
| Gold | 1958 Tokyo | 400 m freestyle |
| Gold | 1958 Tokyo | 1500 m freestyle |
Tsuyoshi Yamanaka (山中 毅 Yamanaka Tsuyoshi, born January 18, 1939) is a Japanese freestyle (crawl) swimmer. He never won an Olympic gold medal, but he has won four silver medals.
In college in the U.S. at the University of Southern California, he broke the 200 m Freestyle World Record three times in less than two months (1961).
In addition to his numerous Japanese records, Yamanaka had two American Records in the 200 m and 400 m free and won the U.S. National AAU Championships in these same events. He has beaten Hall of Famer George Breen in Olympic competition but often failed against Hall of Fame all-time great Murray Rose.
Rose's birthday was six days before Yamanaka's and Murray used to kid him that out of respect for his elders he should let Rose finish first. He came in second in the 1956 and 1960 behind Hall of Famer Australians Rose and Konrads.
Yamanka's coach used the pebble method to get his star swimmer in shape. Whenever the Japanese star loafed in practice he would feel a pebble bounce off his back and knew the coach was watching him. After the workout Yamanaka had to pick up the pebbles, another incentive to train harder.