was a Japanese breaststroke swimmer and the first Japanese woman to earn a gold medal in the Olympics. Maehata was born in

Hashimoto, Wakayama 270px, Hashimoto city center in 2012 aerial photograph is a city located in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 61,063 in 27392 households and a population density of 470 persons per km². The total area of the ...

, as the daughter of a

tofu Tofu (), also known as bean curd in English, is a food prepared by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness; it can be ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', ''extra firm'' or ''super f ...

producer and as a child learned to swim in the

Kinokawa River The is a river in Nara Prefecture, Nara and Wakayama Prefecture in Japan. It is called in Nara. It is 136 km long and has a watershed of 1,660 km². The river flows from Mount Ōdaigahara to the west. It pours into Kii Channel at Waka ...

. In the fifth grade of elementary school, she set an unofficial youth record for the 50-meter breaststroke. She went on to win numerous competitions, and was sponsored to attend a women’s boarding school in Nagoya which specialized in swimming, but the sudden death of her parents in 1931 forced her return home. Yet she was selected for the Japanese Olympic swimming team for the 1932 Summer Olympics in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, and won the silver medal in the 200 m breaststroke event. She lost to

Clare Dennis Clara "Clare" Dennis (7 March 1916 – 5 June 1971), later known by her married name Clare Golding, was an Australian breaststroke swimmer of the 1930s who won the gold medal in the 200-metre breaststroke at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los ...

a mere 0.1 of a second. During the post-Olympic celebration after her return to Japan, she stated that she was considering to retire from competitive swimming due to family issues, but then Tokyo mayor Hidejirō Nagata reportedly asked her why she did not bring back a gold medal. Over the next four years, Maehata trained very hard, and set a new world record for the 200-meter breaststroke on September 30, 1933. 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. Despite the time difference, the race was broadcast live in Japan by NHK Radio. In 1937, Maehata married Masahiko Hyodo, a professor of the medical school of Nagoya University, and retired from competition. She was awarded the Purple Ribbon of Merit by the Japanese government in 1964 and inducted into the

International Swimming Hall of Fame The International Swimming Hall of Fame and Museum (ISHOF) is a history museum and hall of fame, located at One Hall of Fame Drive, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, operated by private interests and serving as the central point for the s ...

in 1979. She suffered from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1983, which killed both her parents, but recovered. In 1990 she was designated a Person of Cultural Merit, the first sportswoman in Japan to receive such an honor. She died of acute

renal failure Kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney failure is classified as eit ...

in 1995.

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External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Maehata, Hideko 1914 births 1995 deaths People from Hashimoto, Wakayama Sportspeople from Wakayama Prefecture Olympic swimmers of Japan Olympic gold medalists for Japan Olympic silver medalists for Japan Swimmers at the 1932 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 1936 Summer Olympics Japanese female breaststroke swimmers World record setters in swimming Medalists at the 1932 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1936 Summer Olympics Academic staff of Nagoya University Olympic gold medalists in swimming Olympic silver medalists in swimming Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon 20th-century Japanese women

See also

References

Further reading

External links