In what most would argue is an unexpected turn of events for the Japanese roster for Rio, 33-year-old multiple Olympic gold medalist Kosuke Kitajima turned in the fastest time in the men’s 100m breaststroke at his nation’s trials.
While competing at the 2016 Japan Swim, which serves as the nation’s Olympic Trials, Kitajima first clocked a semi-final time of 59.62 to slide under the Japanese Olympic standard of 59.63 by just .01 of a second. Then, he followed that up with another solid sub-minute swim of 59.93 to ultimately take the silver medal in the event behind young gun Yasuhiro Koseki. However, Koseki failed to clock a time faster than the Japanese Olympic standard through any of his swims.
We originally reported that the fact that Kitajima was the only swimmer to have earned an Olympic-qualifying time, paired with the fact that he produced a top 2 finish, made it likely that he would be selected for his 5th Olympic Games.
However, NBC Olympics is reporting that the both the Kyodo News and Agence France-Presse have indicated that Kitajima’s swim was indeed not enough to secure a Rio spot.
“I’m speechless,” Kitajima said, according to Agence France-Presse. “It’s just so upsetting I couldn’t swim my usual race. I was thinking too much and swam a negative race. It’s my own problem, I’m gutted. I need to go and cool my head and come back ready for the 200 [breaststroke].”
Kitajima has already made history across the 2000 Sydney, 2004 Athens, 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympic Games. Coming in 4th in the 100m breaststroke in Sydney, Kitajima struck back about 2 years later, when, in October of 2002, he set a new World Record in the 200m breaststroke event.
Kitajima went on to sweep the breaststroke events at the 2003 World Championships in Barcelona before heading into the 2004 Olympic Games as a favorite. At those Games, Kitajima struck gold and swept the breaststrokes and would do the same in 2008, making him only the swimmer to ever sweep the breaststroke events at 2 consecutive Olympics.
Having scored a relay-only spot on Japan’s World Championships team in 2015 paired with the fact that his previous season bests from 2014 and 2015 were 1:00.58 and 1:00.18, respectively, Kitajima essentially came out of the woodwork to throw down the much-needed speed when it counted.
Until the Japanese Swimming Federation announces differently, it the nation will have no 100m breaststrokers in Rio.
Watching on TV as the insanity of Olympic swimming trials grinds relentlessly onwards.
A 14 year old girl called Natsumi Sakai just won the 100 back in a World Junior Record of 100.12, well inside the FINA ‘A’ cut of 1.00.251 never mind the ‘B’ cut.
She’s not going to Rio.
I wonder if she will even still be swimming by the time Tokyo 2020 comes around?
1:00.12 is not a junior world record …
Minna Atherton for example was much faster many times.
Yeah, what a de-motivator right?!
I agree, there’s no evidence that having ridiculously fast time standards (beyond the FINA A times) improves Olympic performance in the short or long term. In fact, it might be counterproductive by putting too much pressure on the swimmers, making them feel worthless and actually lowering their performance. Whatever happened to the Olympic ideal that the important thing is to compete? I agree that the Olympics should be an elite event and you should have somewhat fast time standards so that it doesn’t become an issue of virtual tourism, but that’s why you have the A and B standards.
BTW, I think that in track and field, the US actually has trouble sending three people to the Olympics in… Read more »
It feels like it’s getting to the point where if all these countries don’t send their swimmers to Rio for fear that they won’t medal, there will be no one left to win the medals…:/
USA can still pick all those medals – they dont complicate the swimmers ‘s chances to be qualified . LOL
The irony of all of these countries demanding ridiculous times to qualify in order to ensure that their swimmers are able to reach semifinals is that there are only going to be 20ish qualifiers per event so pretty much everybody is going to make the semifinals! (I know this isn’t likely the case, but you can understand the point being made)
If I’m a federation head for a third tier swimming federation like Switzerland or Austria, I’m seriously loving the game the Big Guys are playing right now- while they leave A standard athletes and qualified relays at home, I’m looking forward to a meet where I get more of my B standard athletes into the meet, have a few relay spots roll down to my country and get a few more night swims for my squad than usual. And then I go to my national sport ministry at the end of the year, and say that while the medals may not have been there this time around, look at the numbers were were able to qualify and the placings they… Read more »
Wow, how the times (and swimmers) have changed! Who would have ever thought ten years ago that a sub-60 100 breast would NOT get you onto your Olympic team even though you WON your OT’s???? They just keep getting faster and faster.
He didn’t qualify for the 100… Plain and simple: https://www.yahoo.com/news/swim-japan-superstar-kitajima-fumes-rio-flop-141118693.html
Is the USA the only country that has an objective Olympic Trials? I think only three things should be considered when selecting an Olympic roster:
1. How fast you swim your event(s) at Trials, meaning placing either first or second in any race (or up to sixth for relays);
2. Whether or not both of the top-2 finishers achieve FINA ‘A’ cuts;
3. Whether or not swimmers that meet the two specifications above also pass the drug tests.
I feel bad for Kitajima and Agnel. Both deserve to compete in Rio. I know Kitajima’s not officially out, but I believe he should be on the team already after those swims.
Reid, I Think that now the top 6 100/200 free are on the team rule are not applied anymore by US after Kazan fiasco. Can anyone confirm this?
Rafael – USA Swimming didn’t change its selection procedures for relays, so the top 6 in the 100/200 frees will still make the team as long as there is roster space: http://swimswam.com/team-usa-not-anticipating-changes-in-olympic-relay-swimmer-selection/
agreed. Qualifying should be simplified and easy to understand. It doesn’t make sense to me to have faster qualifying standards to send less people than the FINA A cut requires. Why take away Olympic Final or Medal possibilities if that is the goal with less qualifiers? There are surprises that rise up every Olympics besides the favorites that countries are giving up on with these faster qualifying standards. Who is to say swimmers can’t drop more time from the trials to the Olympics?
For countries that don’t have the top 4 or 6 in free relay events under a certain time standard also makes sense or the whole relay won’t qualify for the Olympics. US never has to worry about… Read more »
Reid – there are other countries that have trials that straight forward (though it’s so fluid from year to year), but consider that the USA is the only country that never (or almost never) has to worry about its top two being FINA ‘A” times and medal contenders.
Because Americans have a well-deserved reputation over being willing to sue for pretty much anything, there’s also pressure from the USOC in essentially objective sports like swimming and athletics to use selection criteria that’s as objective as possible in order to prevent protests that can linger in the system until they’re about to light the Olympic cauldron. You only tend to get a bit of subjective wiggle room in judged sports like figure skating and gymnastics.
People on here seem quite dense sometimes. Neither Koseki nor Kitajima has automatically qualified. The key word there is automatically. They can still be picked.