Biography of Kosuke Kitajima

Kosuke Kitajima is a Japanese breaststroke swimmer. Born September 22, 1982 in Tokyo, Japan, he has a height of 177 centimeters and a weight of 71 kilograms. He won gold medals for the Men’s 100 m and 200 m breaststroke in the 2004 Summer Olympics. There is a controversy about Kitajima’s way of swimming. On his breaststroke pull-out at every start and turn, some say that he moves his legs making a butterfly style movement, which is forbidden. Still, he never lost an important competition being disqualified due to this issue.

His most significant rival on the breaststroke is the American swimmer Brendan Hansen. They’ve made great duels on 2005 World Championships, 2004 Summer Olympics and 2003 World Championships.

During the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Kitajima made generated buzz for his primal screams of exuberance after edging out Hansen in the 100m & 200m breaststroke for the gold.
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Major Achievements
Gold Medal
100m breaststroke – 2003 World Championships (long course) in Barcelona, Spain.
200m breaststroke – 2003 World Championships (long course) in Barcelona, Spain.
100m breaststroke – 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.
200m breaststroke – 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.
Silver Medal
100m breaststroke – 2002 World Championships (short course) in Moscow, Russia.
100m breaststroke – 2005 World Championships (long course) in Montréal, Canada.
Bronze Medal
100m breaststroke – 2001 World Championships (long course) in Fukuoka, Japan.
4×100m Medlay – 2003 World Championships (long course) in Barcelona, Spain.
4×100m Medlay – 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.