is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

professional

long-distance runner Long-distance running, or endurance running, is a form of continuous running over distances of at least . Physiologically, it is largely aerobic in nature and requires stamina as well as mental strength. Within endurance running comes two d ...

who specialises in the

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

event. She is an

Olympic champion This article includes lists of all Olympic medalists since 1896, organized by each Olympic sport or discipline, and also by Olympiad. Medalist with most medals by sport Summer Olympic sports Winter Olympic sports A. Including military patrol e ...

over the distance. Initially starting out as a

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

and cross country athlete, her first major success was becoming the Asian cross country champion at age 21. She soon switched to

road running Road running is the sport of running on a measured course over an established road. This differs from track and field on a regular track and cross country running over natural terrain. These events are usually classified as long-distance ...

, however, focusing on the

half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish or shortcut ...

. She won the individual and team silver medals at the

1999 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships The 8th IAAF World Half Marathon Championships was held on October 3, 1999, in the city of Palermo, Italy. A total of 192 athletes, 119 men and 73 women, from 48 countries, took part. The course was traced through the historical centre of the town ...

, and won a second team silver with a fourth-place finish at the same competition in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

. A switch to the marathon event demonstrated her talents further: She won the

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most po ...

and

Osaka Women's Marathon The is an annual marathon road race for women over the classic distance of 42.195 kilometres which is held on the 4th or 5th Sunday of January in the city of Osaka, Japan, and hosted by Japan Association of Athletics Federations, Kansai T ...

s, and took the silver medal in the marathon at the

2003 World Championships in Athletics The 9th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held from 23 August to 31 August 2003 in the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, France. Men's results T ...

. Her good form continued and she became the Olympic champion in the marathon at the

2004 Athens Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

. She won the

Berlin Marathon The Berlin Marathon (german: Berlin-Marathon, ) is a marathon event held annually on the streets of Berlin, Germany on the last weekend of September. Held annually since 1974, the event includes multiple races over the marathon distance of , i ...

the following year, setting

world records A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book '' Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizat ...

at 25 km and 30 km along the way, and finishing with a personal best of 2:19:12 – a course record in Berlin and a new Asian record for the distance. The 25K world record was beaten by

Mary Keitany Mary Jepkosgei Keitany (born 18 January 1982) is a Kenyan former professional long distance runner. She is the world record holder in a women-only marathon, having won the 2017 London Marathon in a time of 2:17:01. As of November 2022, she p ...

of Kenya in 2010, who ran the distance in 1:19:53 hours. Before the

2008 Summer Olympics 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 ...

in Beijing, Noguchi had set the second fastest time in the world for the previous year. However, she was ruled out of all competitions after tests revealed that she had fatigue and a muscular back problem. She missed the Olympics and the entire 2009 and 2010 seasons as a result. She returned in November 2011 with a fifth-place finish at the

Zevenheuvelenloop Zevenheuvelenloop (''Seven Hills Run'' in English) is an annual 15 kilometres road running race held in Nijmegen, Netherlands. It was first organised in 1984 and has grown to be one of the largest road races in the Netherlands;van Hemert, Wim & T ...

. She tried to gain a spot on the 2012 Olympic team, but her run of 2:25:33 hours left her in sixth at the

Nagoya Women's Marathon The , named until the 2010 race, is an annual marathon race for female runners over the classic distance of 42 km and 195 metres, held in Nagoya, Japan in early March every year. It holds World Athletics Platinum road race status. I ...

. A return to Nagoya in 2013 brought her third place with a run of 2:24:05 hours.Kizaki clinches World Championships berth with Nagoya victory as Noguchi returns
IAAF (2013-03-10). Retrieved on 2013-03-17.

Early career

Noguchi was born in

Kanagawa is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kanagaw ...

and grew up in Ise in

Ise Ise may refer to: Places *Ise, Mie, a city in Japan ** Ise Grand Shrine, a Shinto shrine located in Ise, Mie * Ise Ekiti, a city in Nigeria * Ise, Norway, a village in Norway * Ise Province, an ancient province of Japan * River Ise, a tributary of ...

city in Mie. She started competing in track and field during her first year of middle school. While attending Ujiyamada Commercial High School, she entered the national high school track meet and competed in the 3000 m and the long-distance relay. In 1997 she was hired by

Wacoal is a manufacturer of women's lingerie and underwear, founded in 1949 in Japan by Koichi Tsukamoto. The company has divisions in North America and Europe, and manufactures the brands Wacoal, b.tempt'd, Elomi, Eveden, Fantasie, Freya, Lively, an ...

, a maker of women's clothing, as part of their "Spark Angels" program of sponsored women athletes. In October of the following year the director, Nobuyuki Fujita (藤田信之), left over differences with the company. He took with him a coach and a few athletes, including Noguchi. While she was receiving unemployment benefits for a short time, she remained active athletically. In February 1999, Fujita and all his followers were hired by Globaly, a commodity futures firm. Noguchi began 1999 by winning individual and team gold at the

Asian Cross Country Championships The Asian Cross Country Championships is a biennial regional cross country running competition for athletes from Asia. It is organised by the Asian Athletics Association and was first held in 1991 in Fukuoka, Japan. The competition has been held e ...

, but after winning the Inuyama

, she was inspired to concentrate her efforts on that event. She was ranked second in the world that year, and in 2001 she won in the all-Japan corporate league. With a string of victories, she became known as "Queen of the Half Marathon." Continuing through the Miyazaki Women's Road Race competition in January 2004, she competed in 24 half marathons and won 14 of them. Only twice was she beaten by another Japanese athlete. In March 2002 she entered her first full marathon, the

International Women's Marathon, and won. In January 2003 she won the

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

International Women's Marathon with a time of 2 hours 21 minutes 18 seconds, the second-fastest on record for Japan. She also won a

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, et ...

in the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

in Paris that year. In 2005, as Globaly closed futures trade department and athletic team, Fujita and all his followers moved to

Sysmex is a Japanese company headquartered in Kobe that is engaged in the health care business. Originally called TOA Medical Electronics (a branch of the TOA Corporation), the Sysmex brand was established in 1978, and were mainly involved with haemato ...

, a medical instruments manufacturer, in December.

2004 Olympic champion

On 22 August 2004 Noguchi won the marathon in the

, against a field which included world record holder

Paula Radcliffe Paula Jane Radcliffe MBE (born 17 December 1973) is a former British long-distance runner. She is a three-time winner of the London Marathon (2002, 2003, 2005), three-time New York Marathon champion (2004, 2007, 2008), and 2002 Chicago Marath ...

of Great Britain, and the 2003 world champion Catherine Ndereba of Kenya. The race over the Classic course began with temperatures exceeding 95 degrees (35 °C). A leading pack of 12 stayed together through halfway in 1 hour 14 minutes. Noguchi made her move on the tough uphill section between the and marks. When she reached the 30-kilometer sign, after running the previous 5 kilometers in just under 17 minutes, she had a 26-second lead on Elfenesh Alemu of Ethiopia and a 32-second lead on Radcliffe. Heading into the streets of downtown Athens, Noguchi held off Catherine Ndereba, who closed the gap over the final 5 kilometers but could not make up the difference. Noguchi won in 2 hours 26 minutes 20 seconds. Ndereba finished 12 seconds behind Noguchi.

Deena Kastor Deena Michelle Kastor (née Drossin; born February 14, 1973) is an American long-distance runner. She was a holder of American records in the marathon (2006-2022) and numerous road distances. She won the bronze medal in the women's marathon at t ...

of the United States took the bronze at 2:27:20.

Records at Berlin

On September 25, 2005 Noguchi won the

, which was her first big competition since winning the gold medal in Athens more than a year earlier. Four years earlier, the Berlin Marathon was won by

Naoko Takahashi is a retired Japanese long-distance runner and Olympic gold medal-winning marathoner. She won the gold medal in the marathon at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and became the first woman to complete a marathon in under 2:20:00 in 2001. Biography Tak ...

, the Japanese runner who took the Olympic gold medal in Sydney in 2000. Takahashi's remarkable win in 2001 in Berlin marked the first time in history that a woman ran sub-2:20, clocking in at 2 hours, 19 minutes and 46 seconds. Noguchi improved on Takahashi's time by more than half a minute, winning the 2005 Marathon in 2:19:12. Noguchi's time set three new records: the Berlin Marathon course record, the Japanese record, and the Asian record. After the victory, she declared:

Achievements

*All results regarding marathon, unless stated otherwise

References

External links

* * *
Mizuki Noguchi
at MarathonInfo {{DEFAULTSORT:Noguchi, Mizuki 1978 births Living people People from Ise, Mie Sportspeople from Mie Prefecture Japanese female long-distance runners Japanese female marathon runners Olympic female marathon runners Olympic athletes of Japan Olympic gold medalists for Japan Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships athletes for Japan World Athletics Championships medalists Berlin Marathon female winners Asian Cross Country Championships winners Japan Championships in Athletics winners Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon Recipients of the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races Best Marathon Runner Award