is a former Japanese-Romanian

hammer throw The hammer throw is one of the four throwing events in regular track and field competitions, along with the discus throw, shot put and Javelin throw, javelin. The "hammer" used in this sport is not like any of the tools also called by that na ...

er and

sports scientist Sports science is a discipline that studies how the healthy human body works during exercise, and how sport and physical activity promote health and performance from cellular to whole body perspectives. The study of sports science traditionally inc ...

. He has been among the world elite since the 2001 World Championships, where he won the silver medal. He was the 2004 Olympic champion. In 2011, he was crowned world champion.

Career

Murofushi was born in

Numazu is a city located in eastern Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 189,486 in 91,986 households, and a population density of 1,014 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Numazu is at the nor ...

Shizuoka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northea ...

. Before the 2001 World Championships he had made his mark in Asian athletics. He started with a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receiv ...

at the

1993 East Asian Games The 1st East Asian Games were held in Shanghai, People's Republic of China from May 9 to May 18, 1993. The main stadium for the inaugural edition of the games was the Hongkou Football Stadium. Shanghai also hosted a number of sports-themed exhibit ...

. At the Asian Championships he won silver medals in

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

. He won the silver medal at the

1994 Asian Games The 1994 Asian Games ( ja, 1994年アジア競技大会, ''Senkyūhyakukyūjūyon-nen Ajia kyōgi taikai''), also known as the XII Asiad and the 12th Asian Games ( ja, 第12回アジア競技大会, Daijūni-kai Ajia kyōgi taikai), were held from ...

and then took his first title

1997 East Asian Games The 2nd East Asian Games were held in Busan, South Korea from May 10 to May 19, 1997. Originally, the second edition of the East Asian Games was to be held in Pyongyang, North Korea, in September 1995. However, North Korea dropped the games due ...

. A silver medal at the 1998 Asian Championship was followed by a gold medal at the

1998 Asian Games The 1998 Asian Games (), officially known as the 13th Asian Games and the XIII Asiad, was an Asian multi-sport event celebrated in Bangkok, Thailand from December 6 to 20, 1998, with 377 events in 36 sports and disciplines participated by 6,554 ...

. In global events, he finished eighth at the 1992 World Junior Championships, tenth at the 1997 World Championships and ninth at the

2000 Olympic Games The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

. He scored gold medals at both the

2001 Goodwill Games The 2001 Goodwill Games was the fifth and final edition of the international multi-sport event. The competition was held in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia from 29 August to 9 September 2001. A total around 1300 athletes took part in 14 spo ...

and the

2001 East Asian Games The 3rd East Asian Games were held in Osaka, Japan from May 19, 2001, to May 27, 2001. Sports The 2001 East Asian Games featured events in 15 sports, which was a new high for the competition. * Aquatics () ** Swimming ** Synchronized swimmin ...

– setting a Games record at the latter event. After the 2001 World Championships, he proceeded by winning the 2002 Asian Championships and

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until t ...

as well as a silver medal at the

2002 World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea an ...

and a bronze medal at the 2003 World Championships. That year he threw 84.86 metres, which was the longest hammer throw in over ten years, putting Murofushi fourth on the all-time performer's list. Among the favorites at the 2004 Summer Olympics, he eventually won the gold medal after the disqualification of

Adrián Annus Adrián Annus (born 28 June 1973 in Szeged) is a Hungarian hammer thrower, who was stripped of his gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens for a doping violation in a highly publicized scandal. The disqualification received heig ...

. Murofushi had an undergraduate degree in physical education and completed his doctorate in 2007 at

Chukyo University is a private university in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, with campuses in Nagoya and Toyota. The main building is located in Yagoto, Shōwa-ku, Nagoya. Notable faculty members * Naomi Miyake, cognitive scientist * Koji Murofushi, Olympic hammer th ...

. Murofushi was accepted a faculty appointment at Chukyo University as associate professor of physical education in 2011. Murofushi joined

Tokyo Medical and Dental University is a Japanese national university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1928, it was the first national school of dentistry in Japan. TMDU is one of top 9 Designated National University and selected as a Top Type university of Top G ...

in 2014 and serving professor in physical education and director of sports science center. In July 2006 he won the World Athletics Final and the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

. He finished sixth at the

2007 World Championships in Athletics The 11th World Championships in Athletics, () under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), were held at Nagai Stadium in Osaka, Japan from 24 August to 2 September 2007. 200 of the IAAF's 212 member federat ...

, third at the 2007 World Athletics Final, and fifth at the

2008 Olympic Games The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

. Two medalists,

Vadim Devyatovskiy Vadim Anatolyevich Devyatovskiy ( be, Вадзі́м Анато́левіч Дзевято́ўскі, , Łacinka: ''Vadzim Anatolevič Dzieviatoŭski'', russian: Вади́м Анато́льевич Девято́вский; born 20 March 1977 i ...

and

Ivan Tsikhan Ivan Ryhoravich Tsikhan (born 24 July 1976) is a Belarusian hammer thrower. He is a two-time world champion and an Olympic medalist. Personal life Tsikhan was born in the village of Hloŭsievičy, Slonim district, Grodno Region, Belarusian SS ...

, were first disqualified for failing the doping test, but won the appeal and had their medals reinstated. At the 2009 Japanese Championships, Murofushi retained his national title, winning his fifteenth consecutive championships at the event. He increased his title total again the following year. He made a world-leading throw of 80.99 m at the

Rieti IAAF Grand Prix The Rieti Meeting is an annual athletics event at the Stadio Raul Guidobaldi in Rieti, Italy that takes place in late August or early September. Previously one of the IAAF Grand Prix events, it is now part of the IAAF World Challenge. It was fir ...

meeting which ranked him first place in the inaugural

IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge The IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge was an annual hammer throw series, organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) from 2010 until the end of 2019 season. The series of hammer throw competitions for men and women were pri ...

. He remained ahead of second-placed

Dilshod Nazarov Dilshod Jamoliddinovich Nazarov ( tg, Dilşod Çamoliddinovic Nazarov, fa, دلشاد نظروف‌; russian: Дильшод Джамолиддинович Назаров, ''Dilshod Dzhamoliddinovich Nazarov'') (born 6 May 1982) is a Tajik track ...

at the end of the series, winning with a score of 238.52 (the combined total of his three best throws on the circuit). In July 2011, the JOC (

Japanese Olympic Committee The is the National Olympic Committee in Japan for the Olympic Games movement, based in Tokyo, Japan. It is a non-profit organisation that selects teams and raises funds to send Japanese competitors to Olympic events organised by the Internati ...

) nominated Murofushi for the

IOC Athletes' Commission International Olympic Committee Athletes' Commission (IOC AC) is a majority elected body that serves as a link between athletes and the IOC. The mission of the IOC AC is to ensure that athletes' viewpoint remains at the heart of the Olympic Movemen ...

, with the elections taking place at the 2012 Olympics. Although Murofushi collected more than enough votes to be elected, his candidacy was voided by the IOC (

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...

) due to inappropriate campaigning by the JOC during the Games. In August of the year, Murofushi won the gold medal at the world championships, making him the oldest winner of the men's hammer world title. He also won the International Fair Play award at the same world championships. He competed at the

2012 Summer 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, th ...

, winning the bronze medal. He was appointed as Sports Director for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in June 2014.

Personal life

Koji Murofushi comes from a hammer throwing family, as his father

Shigenobu Murofushi is a retired Japanese hammer thrower. He competed at the 1972, 1976 and 1984 Olympics and finished in 8th, 11th and 14th place, respectively.Yuka Murofushi is a retired Japanese discus and hammer thrower. Murofushi comes from a hammer throwing family, as her father Shigenobu Murofushi is a former Olympian and held the Japanese record for decades, and her brother Koji Murofushi, is the 2004 Olympi ...

, throws both hammer and discus. Murofushi's mother, Serafina Moritz (born 1950) is Hungarian origin Romanian. She was a javelin thrower for

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

, European Junior champion in 1968, and Romanian senior champion in 1970. She is now a glass painter, and lives in

Toyota City , formerly known as Koromo, is a city in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 426,162 and a population density of 464 people per km2. The total area was . It is located about 35 minutes from Nagoya by way of the Meite ...

Aichi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,552,873 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the west, Gifu Prefecture ...

.室伏選手の母がガラス絵７０作品:トピックス:中日新聞女性向けサイト：オピ・リーナ(Opi-rina)
. Opi-rina.chunichi.co.jp. Retrieved on August 27, 2010. Thanks to his mother, Murofushi speaks

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania ** Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditiona ...

Competition record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Murofushi, Koji 1974 births Living people People from Numazu, Shizuoka Sportspeople from Shizuoka Prefecture Japanese male hammer throwers Olympic male hammer throwers Olympic athletes of Japan Olympic gold medalists for Japan Olympic bronze medalists for Japan Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Asian Games gold medalists for Japan Asian Games silver medalists for Japan Asian Games gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Asian Games medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 1994 Asian Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1998 Asian Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2002 Asian Games Medalists at the 1994 Asian Games Medalists at the 1998 Asian Games Medalists at the 2002 Asian Games Competitors at the 2001 Goodwill Games Goodwill Games medalists in athletics World Athletics Championships athletes for Japan World Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics Championships winners Asian Athletics Championships winners Japan Championships in Athletics winners Japanese people of Romanian descent Tokyo Medical and Dental University faculty Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon Goodwill Games gold medalists in athletics

Career

Personal life

Competition record

See also

References

External links