Japan won 20 gold medals at the Paris Olympics, and together with the silver and bronze medals, Japan won a total of 45 medals. This is also the highest number of medals Japan has won in an overseas Olympics. It is worth mentioning that many of these medal events have hired foreign coaches and established new training systems. The traditional strengths have also achieved good results under the current system, but they are faced with the problem of a shrinking competitive sports population.
The number of medals proves Japan’s strength in multiple sports
Japan achieved fruitful results at the Paris Olympics.
Japan won 20 gold medals in this Olympics, setting its best results in overseas Olympics. This number ranks third after the United States and China, which each have 40 gold medals. In addition, Japan also won 12 silver medals and 13 bronze medals, for a total of 45 medals, covering 16 events, which fully reflects Japan’s strength in multiple sports (at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Japan won 27 gold medals and 14 silver medals and 17 bronze medals).
Number of gold medals in the past four Olympic Games
※Ranked by country and region
Source: Information from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, etc.
Among the gold medal winners, the one who received the most attention was the female javelin thrower Haruka Kitaguchi. She performed well in the competition and lived up to expectations. This is the first time a Japanese female athlete has won a gold medal in a track and field event other than the marathon.
Kitaguchi Haruka was born in Hokkaido in 1998. She was exposed to badminton and swimming when she was in elementary school. She participated in national competitions in both events. After entering high school, she began to take up the javelin throw and quickly rose to prominence. In her sophomore year, she won the national high school comprehensive sports competition championship.
In 2016, Kitaguchi entered Nihon University. In 2019, during a training camp in Europe, she became interested in the training methods of Czech coach David Sekerak. With a strong thirst for knowledge, Beiguchi directly emailed the coach in English, and finally succeeded in becoming a teacher. This kind of mobility is the source of her gold medal, and it is also a rare trait among Japanese players in the past.
In previous interviews, Kitaguchi has talked about her training experience in the Czech Republic.
“There are some special terms for javelin in Czech that are not available in Japanese. Training locally, I was able to learn methods and ideas that are not available in Japan.”
The achievements and confusions of foreign coaches
This title brings to mind the Japanese men’s national volleyball team. Before the opening of the Paris Olympics, their world ranking had risen to No. 2. Everyone is looking forward to the Japanese men’s volleyball team winning medals again since the 1972 Munich Olympics. Although they ultimately failed in the quarterfinals, this rekindled the Japanese’s enthusiasm for volleyball.
An important reason for the improvement of the Japanese men’s volleyball team is the hiring of French coach Philippe Brown. Brown, who has coaching experience in many countries, has been coaching in Japan since 2017. He applies the latest theories to training based on data analysis. The perfect combination of these theories and the athletes’ skills allowed the Japanese team to compete equally with the world’s top teams.
Coach Brown coaches the players during the men’s volleyball quarterfinals. Unfortunately, the Japanese team lost to the Italian team in the end (August 5, 2024, Paris, France, Jiji Press)
However, when Brown first took office, he was confused about how to get along with Japanese players.
“I had face-to-face conversations with each player and told them how I wanted them to play on the court. The players all said ‘yes’, but their style of play has not changed at all. At first I thought there was a problem with the translation, but then I was really annoyed. By the third conversation, I said, ‘I have fully explained my requirements. Now please tell me in your own words how I want you to fight.’ Everyone was shocked. A jump (laughing). Japanese players will say ‘yes’ to the coach even if they don’t agree in their hearts. This is a phenomenon in Japanese society and it taught me a valuable lesson.”
After this process, the communication between coaches and players has become smoother, and the competitiveness of the Japanese men’s volleyball team in the international arena has also been greatly improved. The reason why the Japanese men’s volleyball team reached the quarterfinals at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics is precisely because the players gradually understood and were able to implement Coach Brown’s tactical arrangements.
Brown’s success is also due to outstanding players such as Ishikawa Yuki and Takahashi Ai. Many of the projects that achieved good results in the Paris Olympics hired foreign coaches for training and guidance.
The Japanese men’s foil team, which won the gold medal in the team competition for the first time, has hired the Tokyo Olympic gold medalist and Frenchman Herwan Lepechu as coach from 2021.
Lepeshu quickly discovered the problems of the Japanese team, such as having strength but lack of confidence, practicing for a long time but not with enough intensity. These problems are common in other sports in Japan. He led the men’s foil team to overcome these issues and ultimately win the gold medal.
In the men’s foil team finals, coach Lepesu (fourth from left) cheers, and on his left is coach Yusuke Aoki (August 5, 2024, Paris, France, Kyodo News)
Traditional strengths find ways to survive in Japanese characteristics
Some projects have achieved excellent results due to tacit cooperation with foreign coaches, while some projects, such as gymnastics, judo and wrestling, have still achieved excellent results under the guidance of Japanese coaches. These projects are regarded as Japan’s traditional strengths.
In the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, gymnastics and wrestling each won 5 gold medals, and judo won 3 championships in 4 levels. At the Paris Olympics, gymnastics and judo each won 3 gold medals, and wrestling won 8 gold medals. These achievements are the result of the unique guidelines that these projects have endured over the past 60 years despite their ups and downs.
Shinnosuke Oka competes in the men’s gymnastics individual all-around finals horizontal bar competition. In addition to winning the individual all-around gold medal, Shinnosuke Oka also won gold in the team and horizontal bar events, and won a bronze medal in the parallel bars (July 31, 2024, Paris, France, Reuters)
Since the 1970s, the Japanese gymnastics community has been committed to cultivating all-round athletes, and this policy has been implemented to this day. While other countries focus on cultivating athletes in single events such as rings, which require extremely high strength, or pommel horse, which requires both strength and balance, Japan has been cultivating all-around athletes who can compete in six events, such as Uchimura Kohei, Hashimoto Daiki, and Moto Shinnosuke Oka. It is no accident that the individual all-around champion has been born in four consecutive Olympic Games. The cultivation of all-round athletes and the pursuit of perfection in every detail of the movements, even the elegance of the toes, is Japan’s “perfectionism” that leads the world of gymnastics.
Although the number of gold medals in judo has dropped from 9 in the Tokyo Olympics to 3 in the current Paris Olympics, Japan still retains its dignity as the birthplace of judo. Japanese judo not only pursues victory, but also values winning correctly and gracefully. Shohei Ohno, who won consecutive gold medals in the Rio Olympics and Tokyo Olympics, said: “Take your opponent down and let the audience feel the power of judo. From the competition to the bowing etiquette when leaving the field, I insist on showing the norms and standards of judo at the Olympics.” attitude.”
However, Japan also encountered controversial penalties during the Paris Olympics. How to eliminate the differences between Japanese “Judo” and international competition “Judo” has become an important issue at present.
Nagayama Nagarjuna won the bronze medal in the men’s 60kg judo competition. He lost in the quarter-finals due to a controversial penalty, but then actively adjusted his mentality and finally won the bronze medal (July 27, 2024, Paris, France, Reuters)
The wrestling event is also quite interesting. Japan has been known for its freestyle wrestling in the past, but this time it also won two gold medals in Greco-Roman wrestling.
In this regard, Mitsuo Akaashi, director of the intensive training department of the Japan Wrestling Association, analyzed: “Freestyle wrestling can be effectively strengthened in Japan. The progress of Greco-Roman wrestling is because athletes train with foreign players abroad, thus improving their technical and tactical levels. ”
Nao Kusaka won the gold medal in the men’s Greco-Roman wrestling 77kg category, becoming the heaviest medalist in Japanese wrestling history (August 7, 2024, Paris, France, Jiji Press)
Competitive sports population continues to decrease
However, these traditional strengths of Japan are facing the serious issue of the decline in the youth competitive sports population. The following are the registration numbers for high school club activities in 2013 and 2023.
Number of boys in the gymnastics club
- 2013/2455 people
- 2023/1689 people
Number of boys in the judo club
- 2013/18719 people
- 2023/10825 people
Number of boys in wrestling club
- 2013/2343 people
- 2023/1722 people
Japan is facing a declining birthrate. Compared with 10 years ago, the number of people in almost all sports clubs has decreased by about 10%. The number of men’s judo clubs has dropped by more than 40%, and men’s gymnastics and men’s wrestling, which were originally small, have also dropped by about 30%. This may become a big problem in the future. What is worrying is how many people will be able to compete on the international stage in the future.
In order to maintain the competitive strength of athletes, the growth path of Oka Shinnosuke, who has won three gymnastics gold medals, is worthy of reference. At the age of 15, due to concerns about the training environment, he dropped out of high school and transferred to a correspondence high school. At the same time, he joined the well-known Tokushukai Gymnastics Club and embarked on the path of training for elite athletes. For athletes with potential, there may be more and more examples like Shinnosuke Oka in the future.
In judo and wrestling, the “second generation of athletes” has attracted much attention. Saito Satoshi, who competes in the judo men’s 100kg and above competition, is the son of Jin Saito, a gold medalist at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Motoki Sakura, who won the gold medal in the women’s freestyle wrestling 62kg category at the Paris Olympics, and her father Motoki Yasunen represented the Japanese team in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Motoki Sakura won the gold medal in the women’s freestyle wrestling 62kg category. She won the championship in her first Olympics (August 10, 2024, Paris, France, Reuters)
As the overall number of athletes decreases, many of the elite athletes active in the sports world have been exposed to these sports due to family influence since childhood. This is also a major feature of the current Japanese sports world.
In the context of the current decline in the competitive sports population, if Japan’s traditional strengths are to remain competitive in the future, it is necessary to further strengthen the training of elite athletes, such as the second generation of athletes. In addition, not only domestically, but also need to learn from the world’s advanced training methods and adapt to international referee evaluation standards. In order to maintain traditional advantages, the investment of various resources is essential.
Banner photo: Kitaguchi Haruka, who won the women’s javelin throw competition, shares the joyful moment with coach Sekerak (August 10, 2024, Saint-Denis, France, Jiji)
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