Tetsuo Okamoto (20 March 1932 – 1 October 2007) was a Japanese–Brazilian

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

swimmer. Okamoto had asthma, and began to swim to treat it at 7 years old. However, it was only when he was 15 years old, and the coach Fausto Alonso arrived to form a serious team in Yara Clube in Marília, that Tetsuo began to train in a good pool under the guidance of someone with knowledge of swimming. At that time, his training was only 2000 metres daily. By early 1949, aged 17, Tetsuo had climbed several positions in the Brazilian national ranking, and entered the South American Championship in Montevideo, his first international competition. There, he swam the three long-distance races, reaching the finals of the 400-metre and 1500-metre freestyle. However, an event at the turn of the decade was a watershed in his swimming career. In 1949, a Japanese team (the 'Flying Fish') toured Brazil, and competed in Marília with excellent results, including victories over the Americans. Okamoto was fascinated with these swimmers and received the following advice: "if you want to have good results, you must train a lot more: 10,000 metres daily". Thus, his training changed drastically. Although the pool was unheated and he did not have goggles, Okamoto faced the cold and came out with eyes stinging with the chlorine, but carried out this routine. At the Brazilian Championship in 1950, he became champion for the first time, and his popularity and recognition began to grow. In January 1951, he became the South American record holder for the first time. He swam the 1500-metre freestyle in 19:24.3, breaking the Brazilian record by 40 seconds and the South American record by 13 seconds. At the inaugural Pan American Games in

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, in

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, he claimed two gold medals in the 400-metre and 1500-metre freestyle, and one silver medal in the 4×200-metre freestyle. In the 1500-metre freestyle, he broke his own South American record. When he returned from Buenos Aires to Brazil, Okamoto received a big party in his hometown,

Marília Marília () is a Brazilian municipality in the midwestern region of the state of São Paulo. Its distance from the state capital São Paulo is by highway, by railway and in a straight line. It is located at an altitude of 675 meters. The popula ...

. There was a procession in an open car, and awards to the new Brazilian hero. At the same time, however, thieves robbed his house, taking several belongings. Three weeks after the Pan, he broke the South American record for 400-metre freestyle with 4:41.5, which had never before been in the hands of a Brazilian. At the South American Championship in

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, in March 1952, Tetsuo won the gold medal in the 400-metre, 800-metre and 1500-metre freestyle. He was a bronze medalist at the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

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(1500-metre freestyle), the first Brazilian swimmer to win a medal at the Olympics. Tetsuo won his heat with a time of 19:05.6, another new South American record and in the final won the bronze medal with a further South American record of 18:51.3 that would last ten years. After leaving swimming, Okamoto moved to the

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for several years, where he studied geology and business administration and started a company drilling artesian wells. He died in his city of birth,

, on 1 October 2007, due to

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and

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failure, caused by long-standing

kidney The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; blo ...

problems which forced him to have frequent

hemodialysis Hemodialysis, also spelled haemodialysis, or simply dialysis, is a process of purifying the blood of a person whose kidneys are not working normally. This type of dialysis achieves the extracorporeal removal of waste products such as creatinin ...

in the last years of his life.

References

External links

* * *
''People's Daily'' obituary
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Okamoto, Tetsuo 1932 births 2007 deaths People from Marília Brazilian male freestyle swimmers Texas A&M Aggies men's swimmers Swimmers at the 1951 Pan American Games Swimmers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Olympic swimmers of Brazil Olympic bronze medalists for Brazil Brazilian people of Japanese descent Deaths from kidney failure Olympic bronze medalists in swimming Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics Pan American Games gold medalists for Brazil Pan American Games silver medalists for Brazil Pan American Games medalists in swimming Medalists at the 1951 Pan American Games Sportspeople from São Paulo (state)