Kosuke Kitajima

About Kosuke Kitajima

Kosuke Kitajima (北島 康介, Kitajima Kōsuke?, born September 22, 1982 in Tokyo) is a Japanese breaststroke swimmer. He has a height of 177 centimeters and a weight of 71 kilograms. He first made history by being the first swimmer to set a new world record at the Asian Games when he did so in the 200m breastroke in 2002 at Busan. He won gold medals for the Men's 100 m and 200 m breaststroke in the 2004 Summer Olympics, and defended his title in 100 m breaststroke in 2008 setting a new world record in the process.

There is a controversy about Kitajima's swimming style. On his breaststroke pull-out at every start and turn, some say that he moves his legs making a butterfly stroke-like movement, which was forbidden at the time of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Protests have been officially logged against him for this (as done by the United States' swimming delegation at the 2004 Olympic Games), but he has never been disqualified from an important competition for this. Perhaps due to the controversial incident at 2004 Olympics, FINA has changed the rule of breaststroke to allow one butterfly-like leg motion after the start and each turn since the 2005 World Championships.

His most significant rival on the breaststroke is the American swimmer Brendan Hansen. They dueled out at events such as the 2005 World Championships, 2004 Summer Olympics and 2003 World Championships. Kitajima set both world records for 100 m and 200 m breaststroke in the latter occasion. Later his best in 200 m was overcome by Dimitri Komornikov and then by Hansen, who also broke Kitajima's record in the 100 m.