Japan's Kosuke Kitajima beat the world record in the 100m breaststroke earlier today in Beijing with a time of 58.1 seconds. Yay! Pictured next to him is a devastated Brendan Hansen—he held the world record until seconds ago.
Kitajima was already a national hero—at Athens four years ago, when he won two golds, for the 100m and 200m breaststrokes. I think it's safe to say that Kosuke Kitajima has the fastest breaststroke in the world ever. It's the second gold so far for Japan, with Masato Uchishiba winning the gold in 66k Judo yesterday.
I love watching the Olympics, and cheering for the Japanese team is super fun because I feel like I understand the heart and struggle they put behind all their efforts. I was just talking to Alyssa about this the other day while watching the US play Japan in women's volleyball, but even though we both grew up between the two cultures, we subconsciously root for Japan when they go head-to-head because that's where we were raised, and where our roots are the strongest.
It's fun to watch, except for the endless commercials, as many of my friends are from different countries, so we keep each other up-to-date on who's the best.
The girlfriend is really into the Japanese Olympic Volleyball teams. We watched on TV before the Olympics and even headed down to Yokohama in July for a match between Japan & Cuba. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get tickets for Japan vs. USA the next day.
Posted by: vagrant | August 11, 2008 at 11:49 PM