In preparation for the Olympic Games, swimming championships have been held here in Japan. I entered, and, in the last race , on the last turn, the electrical scoreboard caught my eye as I was taking a breath. “Oh no! I’m behind the standard time needed to be sent as a swimmer!” As a matter of fact, she was not at all behind, but Ms. Kitagawa put on a spurt even more for having made the mistake. The result was surprising for her, winning by a large margin. “No matter how tired I am, I try to improve my time in my last turn. Losing speed makes me anxious in the next competition. I think to win in the mental process leads bit by bit to confidence.” More than the happiness of being chosen, “I felt relieved from feeling the extraordinary strain of competition.”

She started swimming at three, influenced by her sister, who was also a swimmer. Her dream was to participate in the Olympic Games, but she used to think that it would be enough if she could just enter. “But taking part in a training camp, I found out that nobody thought that way. “I am going to enter to win,” they all said. They were filled with spirit. “Though it may the first and the last Olympics for me, my thinking changed. It is no good just participating.” Ms. Kitagawa seldom goes to the swimming club as she is so busy with her daily training, but she says “It makes my condition better when I sometimes visit. There is a liveliness in the club members’ voices.” Practicing with swimmers of the same age and encouraging each other differs from a swimming school, where there are more young swimmers. She surely derives power for the Olympic from her friends at the swimming club.

Ms. Kitagawa was smiling throughout the interview. Her cheerful smile makes people happy. “What is your motto?” The answer, of course, was “Always smile! I make it a rule to do something I decided to do without complaint and with a bright smile.” When she was a high school student, there was a brief period when she did not practice, and felt unenthusiastic about swimming?but a week of that was enough for her. She came back wanting to swim again. “Whatever you do, there comes a time when you feel at a loss, but if you think positively and practice hard…. Anyway, swimming is what I chose.” We can look forward to seeing Ms. Kitagawa’s smile in the swimming pool at Beijing.

Photos: Waseda sports press