Gold medal seized by effort Para swimming 18 years old Naohide Yamaguchi September 12 15:37

In the class of intellectual disability of the men's 100m breaststroke of the Para World Championship, 18-year-old Naohide Yamaguchi won the gold medal at the first appearance. It became the first official offer of the Tokyo Paralympics swimming race. Expected nova of only two years in the competition, glorified by making steady efforts while facing obstacles.

Go to the world stage in just two years

Yamaguchi was diagnosed with autism with intellectual disability while attending a nursery school. I started swimming in the 4th grade of elementary school.

Height 1 meter 87 centimeters, and foot size is 30 centimeters, acclaimed by the officials as “like a fin for diving”. It has a long stroke that makes the most of its bountiful physique.

Steady efforts

According to Yamaguchi, suddenly, it is difficult to remember anything because of autism.
What helped me to concentrate on the competition was a special note to help organize the feelings made by my family. The notebook has divided every day into morning, noon, evening, and night, and recorded emotions with a red sticker when it was hard, and a blue sticker when it was successful.

In addition, Yamaguchi says, “I am able to sort out my feelings,” writing things such as practice and efforts in daily life.

I also devised a training menu for strengthening my body. Repeated strength training using dumbbells to further strengthen the blessed physique.

In July, I marked the new world record of 1 minute 5 seconds 75, approaching 0 seconds 47 until the world record, and entered the first world championship with a time equivalent to 2nd in the world ranking.

Overcoming the difficulties of international competitions

The World Championship is qualifying in the morning and the final starts in the evening, which is very different from the schedule for domestic competitions.

Yamaguchi, who was inexperienced and participated in a large international competition for the first time, attracted attention as he faced difficulties facing the qualifying, finals and two races a day.

However, the worries ended with a whole lot of work.
Yamaguchi renewed his own record in the qualifying on the morning of the 11th, and also marked a new world record in the final and won a gold medal.

Grasping glory with steady efforts

The strength of Kaarin, who had a sense of conscience, actually appeared before the race. Before the race, you can feel the spiritual stability gained by facing the obstacles while being supported by the family, such as inspiring yourself with the words “Naohide, do your best” to the theme song of the movie “Rocky” It was.

In the race performance, we showed the results of physical enhancement so far.
In the first half of 50 meters, I swam at a faster pace than the world record, and pulled away from second place for over a second.

In the second half, he was driven up by British Scott Quinn, a world record holder and rival who swims in the adjacent lane, but he escaped.

I feel that Yamaguchi has pride in the fact that “I think he was able to grab it because of his steady efforts” for the past two years. It was.

Now at the top of the Tokyo Paralympics

In the future, he will be in a position to be chased by the world's powerhouses. Nevertheless, Yamaguchi declared that he wanted to win a gold medal even at the Tokyo Paralympics.

The 18-year-old, who became the first representative of the Tokyo Paralympic Games for swimming, is eager to continue to make steady efforts and show his shining appearance on the best stage.