HIDEKO MAEHATA (SWIMMER)
• Born on 20 May 1914 Hashimoto, Wakayama, Japan.
• Died on 24 Feb 1995 at the age of 80.
• Achievements : First Lady of Japan to win a gold medal in breaststroke swimming in Olympics 1936.
• Childhood:
Hideko was the daughter of a tofu producer, her family lived near kinkinokawa river. In the 5th grade of her elementary school she made an unofficial youth record of 50 metre breaststroke. She was a girl who had many illnesses in her early age, so her mother treated her like a boy , so as to make her fit after consulting from a Buddhist priest . As the river was very close to her home,so she use to practice swimming with her parents, she use to have short hair's and the people in her neighborhood use to gossip that she look like a tomboy. In her 4th grade of her elementary school she was the youngest member of her primary school swimming club. The coach of her school Ishii So¯ichi saw a potential in her as she was very robust, tall and healthy as compared to other students of her age, she entered many swimming competitions and won many medals and trophies such that her parents were thrilled about her talent, that a girl who used to be sick and weak in her early days is now a swimming star, not only her parents and her coach started showing intrest in her but also her schools principal started showing intrest in her talent. When she was 14 year old she saw'd the publicity gained by Hitomi Kinue in Olympics of 1928, then she made her decision of competing in Olympics.
• The Olympic struggle:
Japan is participating in Olympics from 1912 but there were very few athelets who were send for Olympics, as Japan never had any gold medal until 1928 Olympics, after 1928 most of the Japanese newspaper started showing the sports news in the front page and most of the radio channels used to host telecastings of live reports of Olympics. Maehata went on to win numerous competitions, and was sponsored to attend a women’s boarding school in Nagoya which was specialized in swimming, but the sudden death of her parents in 1931 forced her to return home. As Maehata was selected for the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, she decided to complete her dream, so she went to Olympics and secured a silver medal in 200m breaststroke event as she lost to Claire Dennis by only 0.1 second, after the post celebration of Olympics she decided to get retired from her swimming career due to some family issues, but the Mayor Hidejirō Nagata reportedly asked her about why couldn't she bring back a gold medal, she had received a pile of letters asking her about medal and Olympics, due to such encouragement she worked hard 4 years practicing 10,000 meter every day and set a new world record in 200 meters womans breaststroke on 30 September 1933 (3:00.4). During the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Maehata competed in a dead heat against the reigning German national champion, Martha Genenger, winning the gold medal for the Women's 200 m breaststroke by over one second. This complete telecast was reported live on NHK radio in Japan. In 1937 she married
Masahiko Hyodo a professor from the medical school of Nagoya university and get officially retired from her carrier. She died in 1995 due to renal failure.
•Achievements:
-Awarded by the purple ribbon of merit by Japanese government in 1964.
- Inducted in International swimming Hall of fame in 1964.
• Inspiration:
Hideko Maehata was sick and weak in her young age but she took this thing positively and practiced hard to defeat her illnesses and became strong and fit which help her to gain help in her athletic abilities, even though Japan had very few participation in Olympics during 1930's but she didn't loose hope and entered twice so as to become the 1st gold medal achieving Japanese woman athlete.
• Japan, Olympics and world War 2:
After the 1936 Berlin Olympics most of the countries started taking sports as a strong political showcasing to the world, due to German aggression showed in the presence of Adolf Hitler, many nations started focusing on military such as Japan , after the achievements in 1936 Olympics, Japan started focusing on military and sports with the help of Japanese media as the 1940's Olympics were going to be held in Japan which were cancelled due to world war 2, and there was sino-japanese war ongoing, the most metal required on daily basis was used for war purpose, after the defeat in world war 2 Japan faced a recession and economic depression, which lead to reduction in the Olympics participation, but as Japanese realize their mistakes they bounced back by struggling hard in such situations.
Comments
Post a Comment