is a Japanese former competitive

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

who specialized in the individual medley and 200 m freestyle. He is a four-time Olympic medalist, most notably winning gold in the 400 m individual medley at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

. Hagino holds the Asian Records in the 400 m individual medley (long course), the 100 m and 200 m individual medley (short course). With Team Japan, he holds the Asian Record for the 4×100 m freestyle relay (short course). Hagino attends

Toyo University is a university with several branches in Japan, including Hakusan, Asaka, Kawagoe, Itakura, and Akabane. Overview The predecessor to Toyo University was , which was founded at Rinsho-in Temple by Enryo Inoue in 1887. Inoue felt that the ...

, and is coached by Norimasa Hirai. He is one of the only two Asians to have been voted World Swimmer of the Year.

Background and personal

Kosuke Hagino was born in

Tochigi, Tochigi is a city located in Tochigi Prefecture, in the northern Kantō region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 159,056 in 66,018 households, and a population density of 480 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Because t ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

on 15 August 1994. He married the singer miwa in 2019 fall and the couple has been expecting a child; its birth expected some time in 2019 winter.

Career

Beginnings: 2012 Olympic Games

Hagino made his international breakthrough at the

2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

held in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. He qualified First in the 400 m individual medley heats with a new Asian record of 4:10.01, and would go on to win his first international medal with a bronze in the event and again lower his Asian record to a 4:08.94.

Rise to recognition: 2013 World Championships

Coming into the Championships Hagino had qualified for a full slate of events including the 200 m freestyle, 400 m freestyle, 100 m backstroke, 200 m backstroke, 200 m individual medley and the 400 m individual medley. In his first event the 400 m freestyle Hagino won his first silver medal at the World Championships medal with a new Japanese record of 3:44.82. In the Finals of 200 m Freestyle, Hagino clocked a personal best time of 1:45.94.; he came in 5th. Nearly an hour later, he was swimming, this time in the Finals of the 100 m backstroke. He was placed seventh in 53.93, much slower than his National record of 53.10 (which would have won him a silver medal.) On day five, after qualifying for the final, Hagino won another silver medal in the 200 m individual medley. His time of 1:56.29 was about half a second off his Nationals time of 1:55.74; he won Silver The following day, he led off his team, in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay, and was able to take off a hundredth of a second off his 200 m free time from day three, swimming a 1:45.93. He was placed fifth in the 200 m backstroke final that night, finishing in 1:55.42. On the final night of competition, despite being the favorite, Hagino was only able to manage fifth place, finishing in 4:10.77. Although only winning two medals in his seven events, he was the only swimmer at the meet to swim six individual events.

Breakthrough: 2014 Pan Pacific Championships and 2014 Asian Games

2014 Pan Pacific Championships

On day one of the Pan Pacs in

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

, Hagino swam in the 200m freestyle. Hagino swam fastest in the heats, with 1:46.60, besting second place

Conor Dwyer Conor James Dwyer (born January 10, 1989) is a former American competition swimmer and Olympic gold medalist. He competed in freestyle and medley events, and won a gold medal as a member of the winning U.S. 4×200-meter freestyle relay team a ...

by five hundredths of a second. He later shaved almost half a second off his heats timing in the 'A' final, bringing it down to 1:46.08, a tenth of a second behind

Thomas Fraser-Holmes Thomas William Fraser-Holmes (born 9 October 1991) is an Australian swimmer who made his international debut in 2010. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder. At the 2010 Commonwealth Games, he won individual bronze in the ...

. Hagino would earn a silver, his first medal of the meet. On day two, Hagino swam in the 400m individual medley in his first event of the day. Hagino again swam fastest in the heats with 4:11.48, around three tenths of a second faster than second place and long-time rival, fellow Japanese

Daiya Seto is a Japanese professional swimmer who specializes in individual medley, butterfly, breaststroke, and freestyle events. He won the gold medal in the 400-metre individual medley at the 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2021 world short course cham ...

. Hagino would again swim fastest in the 'A' final with 4:08.31 for his first gold and second medal of the meet. Hagino later swam in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay as the lead, clocking 1:46.13, touching first for Japan in the first leg. Japan finished second to the U.S. with 7:05.30, settling for silver. On day three, Hagino swam in the 400m freestyle. Hagino swam with a time of 3:48.92 in the heats, at fourth place. He then swam 3:44.56 in the 'A' final, finishing more than a second behind winner

Park Tae-hwan Park Tae-hwan (, ; born September 27, 1989) is a South Korean competitive Swimming (sport), swimmer who is an Olympic gold medalist and world champion. He has four Olympic medals, five world titles, and 20 Asian Games medals. He won a gold me ...

. He earned his third silver and fourth medal of the meet. Hagino then swam in the 200m backstroke, where he qualified fifth with 1:56.94. He finished last in the 'A' final, where he surprisingly swam almost three seconds slower than his heats timing. It would be Hagino's only medal-less event. On day four and Hagino's final event, he swam in the 200m individual medley that featured a competitive field including teammate Seto and American legends

Michael Phelps Michael Fred Phelps II (born June 30, 1985) is an American former competitive swimmer. He is the most successful and most decorated Olympian of all time with a total of 28 medals. Phelps also holds the all-time records for Olympic gold me ...

Ryan Lochte Ryan Steven Lochte ( ; born August 3, 1984) is an American professional swimmer and 12-time Olympic medalist. Along with Natalie Coughlin, Dara Torres, and Jenny Thompson, he is the second-most decorated swimmer in Olympic history measured by to ...

and

Tyler Clary Tyler may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tyler (name), an English name; with lists of people with the surname or given name * Tyler, the Creator (born 1991), American rap artist and producer * John Tyler, 10th president of the United ...

. Hagino swam fastest in the heats with a 1:57.61, besting second place Seto by more than a half a second. He again swam fastest in the 'A' final, swimming 1:56.62, narrowly out-touching Phelps by two hundredths of a second. He earned his second gold of the meet. Hagino earned medals in five of his six events. He won two gold and three silver medals.

2014 Asian Games

On the first day of the Asiad in

Incheon Incheon (; ; or Inch'ŏn; literally "kind river"), formerly Jemulpo or Chemulp'o (제물포) until the period after 1910, officially the Incheon Metropolitan City (인천광역시, 仁川廣域市), is a city located in northwestern South Kore ...

, Hagino swam in the 200m freestyle that featured Asia's best with Asian Record holder Sun Yang and Games Record holder

. He clocked 1:48.99 for second place in the heats, nine hundredths of a second behind Sun. In the final, Hagino shaved off more than two seconds off his heats timing, swimming 1:45.23 for his first gold medal of the Games. Hagino then swam in the 100m backstroke, clocking the third fastest time in the heats with 54.86. In the final, he swam almost a second faster for a bronze, and his second medal of the games. On Day Two, Hagino swam in the 200m individual medley, which he holds the Asian Record of 1:55.33. He surprisingly swam third in the heats, clocking 2:00.85. In the final, he missed his own Asian Record by one hundredth of a second, but set a new Games Record. It was his second gold of the Games. Hagino later swam in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay, which Japan held the Asian Record of 7:02.26. He swam a split of 1:44.97, the fastest split of any swimmer in the relay. Japan would then fail to beat their record, however set a new Games Record of 7:06.74 for the gold medal. On day three, Hagino swam in the 400m freestyle than again featured Asian Record holder Sun and Games Record holder Park. He qualified second with 3:52.24 in the heats, and brought his time down to 3:44.48, but again finished second to Sun. He earned his first silver of the Games. On day four, Hagino swam in the 400m individual medley, which he holds the Asian Record of 4:07.61. He finished second to prime rival Seto in the heats, swimming 4:18.77, around two seconds slower. Hagino then swam close to his personal best with 4:07.75 in the final, failing to beat his Asian Record but setting a new Games Record. It was his fourth gold medal. On day five and Hagino's final event, he swam in the 200m backstroke, and qualified fourth in the heats with 2:00.34. He managed to win bronze in the final, swimming 1:56.36. Hagino swam seven-for-seven, earning four golds, a silver and three bronze medals. He was announced as the Most Valuable Player (MVP). Hagino was also World Swimmer of the Year, and is the first and only Japanese to earn the award.

Continued Success: 2016 Olympic Games

Hagino competed in his second Olympic games at the

2016 Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro ...

held in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. He qualified third in the heats and went on to win gold for the 400 m individual medley, breaking his own Asian record with a time of 4:06.05 and winning Japan's first-ever gold for this event. Hagino won silver in the 200 m individual medley, becoming the first Asian man (along with

Wang Shun Wang Shun (; born 11 February 1994) is a Chinese competitive swimmer. A versatile medley swimmer, he became the first Asian male swimmer to win a gold medal at the men's 200m individual medley at the Olympic Games when he came in first at the ...

) to medal at the event, and bronze in the 4x200 m freestyle relay.

Retirement: 2020 Olympic Games

Hagino decided not to defend his 400 m individual medley title at the

2020 Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

held in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

in 2021. He finished sixth in the 200 m individual medley event. On 24 Aug 2021, it was reported that he has informed his team of his decision to retire and is contemplating attending graduate school.

Personal bests (long course)

References

External links