Skip to main content

Yuko Arimori on Anniversary of First Japanese Women's Olympic Medal and Death of Its Winner Kinue Hitomi: "Never Forget Her"



An event looking back at the life of Japan's first female Olympian and first female Olympic medalist Kinue Hitomi, winner of the silver medal in the 800 m at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, took place at Tokyo's Mainichi Hall on Aug. 2. Two-time Olympic marathon medalist Yuko Arimori and judo Olympic medalist Kaori Yamaguchi discussed the achievements of the pioneer of women's sports and the hardships she faced.

Aug. 2 is the anniversary of the day Hitomi won her medal in Amsterdam. It is also the anniversary of her death three years later at just 24 years old. Like Hitomi a native of Okayama prefecture, Arimori also won her first marathon medal, a silver at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, on Aug. 2, the first Japanese woman in the 64 years since Hitomi to medal in track and field at the Olympics. "It was thanks to Hitomi having led the way that I had the courage to do what I did at the Olympics and later as a pro," Arimori reflected. "Everyone involved in sports must never forget her."

Translator's note: Having set multiple national and world records in sprints and field events, Hitomi choked and didn't make it out of the 100 m semifinals in Amsterdam. Distraught, she asked to be put in the 800 m, a distance she had never run. As shown in the video above, after finishing 2nd in the semifinal she started the final with a crouching start and immediately took the lead. Other members of the Japanese team told her to slow down, which she did, before coming back in the last 200 m to take silver behind Germany's Lina Radke, both of them breaking the world record. The depiction of the race in NHK's ongoing Idaten drama about the history of Japan and the Olympics, mixing real and recreated footage, has been the highlight of the series so far by a long shot. The highlights clip below cuts out the historical footage but you get the feeling. Aug. 2 will also be the date of the women's marathon at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, surely not a coincidence.




source article:
https://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2019/08/03/kiji/20190802s00056000365000c.html
translated by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Metts said…
I've watch this drama on NHK a lot. Of course now focusing on the Olympics. I don't get the constant yelling or screaming though, or so it seems. Even now on Saturday at 1:00 I've got it on.
August 3, 2019 at 1:48 PM
Andrew Armiger said…
Thank you for this! 🙏
August 7, 2019 at 2:49 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...
Post a Comment
Read more

Restaurant Owner Selected as Olympic Torchbearer Dies in Fire After Becoming Despondent Over Impact of Coronavirus Crisis (updated)

On the evening of Apr. 30, the 54-year-old male owner of a restaurant in Tokyo's Nerima ward specializing in tonkatsu deep fried pork cutlets died from full-body burns in a fire at the restaurant. The man had been one of the people chosen as a torchbearer for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics torch relay. With the coronavirus crisis causing both the postponement of the Olympics and a loss of business at the restaurant, the man had recently started talking pessimistically about the future to those around him. With evidence of the man's body having been doused in tonkatsu cooking oil, metropolitan police from the Hikarigaoka Police Station are carefully examining the cause of the fire. At around 10:00 p.m. on the 30th, the fire broke out in the tonkatsu restaurant on the first floor of a three-story building. A neighborhood resident who noticed smoke called the fire department. Firefighters found the floor and part of a wall burning, with the man lying on the floor in the customer seat...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kawauchi Wins Inaugural Kawauchi Half Marathon

http://www.minyu-net.com/sports/running/FM20160501-070419.php translated by Brett Larner 川内優輝ロード pic.twitter.com/rEJk7CQPFV — みとっぽ (黒) (@mitoppo_tmyk) April 30, 2016 Yuki Kawauchi Road in Kawauchi, Fukushima Held to inspire former residents to return to the area after the nearby TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident five years ago, the village of Kawauchi held the first " Kawauchi no Sato Kaeru Half Marathon - From Reconstruction to Creation " on April 30.  The course started and finished at the village heliport.  1188 runners from across the country gathered to celebrate the village's revival as they ran through its springtime streets. The event's organizing committee was made up of local government and board of education members with support from the Fukushima Minyu Newspaper and other sponsors.  The race's purpose was to transmit the vitality and charm of the reconstructing Kawauchi village to the rest of the nation in hopes of helpin...
Post a Comment
Read more