Hiroyasu Shimizu

Five hundred meters is over before you can settle into a seat. Hiroyasu Shimizu built an entire career inside that sliver of time, and I find that kind of specialization strangely moving. At the 1998 Nagano Games he became the first Japanese speed skater to take Olympic gold, and that same year he set a world record of 34.82 seconds at the World Championships, the first human being to go under thirty-five. What sticks with me is his size. At 162 cm he was giving away height and leg length to nearly everyone on the ice, in an event that rewards raw power off the line. He won anyway, which suggests the sprint is less about being big than about knowing exactly where every gram of force should go. He grew up in Obihiro, Hokkaido, a place that supplies Japan with skaters the way other regions supply pitchers. Since retiring he has worked as a television personality, a businessman, and in medical research, which reads to me like the same restlessness pointed somewhere new.

Name (English)

Hiroyasu Shimizu

Name (Japanese)

清水宏保

Born

February 27, 1974 (age 52)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Pisces / Tiger

Origin

Obihiro, Hokkaidō, Japan

Height

162 cm

Occupation

speed skater / tarento / businessperson / medical researcher

University

Nihon University

Awards & achievements

• 2001 Oscar Mathisen Award

• Xhttps://x.com/shimizuhiroyasu
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroyasu%20Shimizu
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B8%85%E6%B0%B4%E5%AE%8F%E4%BF%9D
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q735957

Tags

• Hokkaidō
• speed skater
• tarento
• businessperson

Last updated

2026-08-07

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.