Kohei Yamamoto

There's something quietly compelling about a competitive mountain biker coming out of Makubetsu in Hokkaido and making it to the Olympics. Cross-country mountain biking is a sport where you have to really want it, and he grew up alongside an older brother who also raced. Born in 1985, Yamamoto came up in a generation that had to seek out their niche rather than have it handed to them, and there's something I find genuinely admirable about that kind of self-directed persistence. From the 2008 Beijing Olympics to selection for Tokyo, the fact that he kept going for well over a decade says more about his character than any press release would.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Kohei Yamamoto is a Japanese cross-country mountain biker born on August 20, 1985, in Makubetsu, Hokkaido. He is one of the notable competitive cyclists to emerge from Hokkaido, a region not traditionally associated with the sport. He competed in the men's cross-country at the 2008 Summer Olympics, rides for the Dream Seeker MTB Racing Team, and was named to Japan's team for the Tokyo Olympics.

Name (English)

Kohei Yamamoto

Name (Japanese)

山本幸平

Reading

やまもと こうへい

Born

August 20, 1985 (age 41)

Origin

Makubetsu, Hokkaido, Japan

Height

182 cm

Occupation

Cyclist

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Leo / Ox

Agency

Dream Seeker MTB Racing Team

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B1%B1%E6%9C%AC%E5%B9%B8%E5%B9%B3
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3079146

Tags

• From Hokkaido
• Cyclist

Last updated

September 28, 2026

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.