Tsuyoshi Yamanaka
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 18, 1939 (age 85) Wajima, Ishikawa, Japan |
Tsuyoshi Yamanaka (山中 毅 Yamanaka Tsuyoshi?, born January 18, 1939 in Wajima, Ishikawa) was a Japanese freestyle (crawl) swimmer. He never won an Olympic gold medal, but he has won four silver medals.
Swimming career
In college in the U.S. at the University of Southern California, he broke the 200 meter freestyle world record three times in less than two months during 1961.
In addition to his Japanese records, Yamanaka had two American Records in the 200 and 400 meter freestyle and won the U.S. National AAU Championships in those events. He beat Hall of Fame swimmer George Breen in Olympic competition but often failed against Hall of Famer Murray Rose.
Rose's birthday was six days before Yamanaka's and Murray used to kid him that out of respect for his elders he should let Rose finish first. He came in second in the 1956 and 1960 behind Hall of Famer Australians Rose and Konrads.
Yamanka's coach used the pebble method to train him. Whenever Yamanka loafed in practice he would feel a pebble bounce off his back to remind him the coach was watching him. After the workout Yamanaka had to pick the pebbles from the pool bottom.
Achievements
- 1956 - Two Olympic Silver Medals in 400 m freestyle and 1500 m freestyle
- 1960 - Two Olympic Silver Medals in 400 m freestyle and freestyle relay
- Fourteen World Records in 200 m freestyle, 400 m freestyle, and four freestyle relays
- Three American Records in 200 m freestyle and 400 m freestyle
- Two AAU Nationals in 200 m freestyle and 400 m freestyle
- Inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1983
See also
References
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- Articles which use infobox templates with no data rows
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- Articles containing Japanese-language text
- 1939 births
- Living people
- Olympic swimmers of Japan
- Swimmers at the 1956 Summer Olympics
- Swimmers at the 1960 Summer Olympics
- Former world record holders in swimming
- Olympic medalists in swimming
- Male freestyle swimmers
- People from Ishikawa Prefecture
- Asian Games medalists in swimming
- Swimmers at the 1958 Asian Games
- International Swimming Hall of Fame inductees
