"It Feels So Good": Kosuke Kitajima and the Breaststroke Empire Built from a Tokyo Pool
August 2004, Athens. A young Japanese man had just won the 100 m breaststroke, and when a microphone was thrust toward him, his first words were no carefully polished phrase. "It feels so good." That exclamation, welling up straight from the heart, went on to win the Buzzword of the Year and etched his name into the national consciousness.
Kosuke Kitajima. Born September 22, 1982, in Arakawa, Tokyo, he stood at the very top of the breaststroke world. The 100 m and the 200 m, swept at both Athens and Beijing — a feat no swimmer in Olympic history had ever achieved.
This is the story of a boy who set off swimming from a humble downtown swim school, who raced on pure feeling, and who built a breaststroke empire of his own across the world.
A Pool at Five, a Fateful Meeting
Kosuke Kitajima started swimming at age five, joining the Tokyo Swimming Center in Arakawa and beginning his daily relationship with the water. Then, in his second year of junior high school, came the meeting that would shape his life: he was discovered by coach Norimasa Hirai, who began guiding him in earnest.
The partnership with Hirai would become the spine of Kitajima's entire competitive career. He went on to Hongo High School and then Nippon Sport Science University. In 1999 he made his mark at the National Junior High School Swimming Championships, drawing attention as a young talent carrying the hopes of Japanese swimming.
Olympic Debut at Eighteen, and a World Record
In 2000, Kitajima made his Olympic debut at the Sydney Games as an eighteen-year-old high school senior. He finished fourth in the 100 m breaststroke and set a Japanese record, leaving a firm footprint on the world stage.
Then, in 2003, he exploded at the World Aquatics Championships in Barcelona. He swept the 100 m and 200 m breaststroke and set world records in both. At twenty-one, the young man had seized the title of best in the world in his event in every sense. That year he was awarded the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon.
Athens and That One Phrase
The 2004 Athens Olympics elevated Kosuke Kitajima to national hero. He won both the 100 m and 200 m breaststroke, taking home two gold medals.
And then there was that first exclamation after the 100 m: "It feels so good." Where many athletes arrive with philosophical comments prepared for the big stage, he simply blurted out his unvarnished feeling. That honesty captured countless hearts, and the phrase was named Buzzword of the Year. Between his Athens triumph and that single line, Kitajima's name spread far beyond swimming fans to all of Japan.
Back-to-Back in Beijing, an Olympic First
In 2005, after graduating from Nippon Sport Science University, Kitajima signed with Coca-Cola Japan, becoming Japan's first professional competitive swimmer. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, competing as a professional, he achieved what no one had done before.
He won the 100 m breaststroke in a world record and the 200 m in an Olympic record, completing a double in both events for the second straight Games. It was the first time in Olympic history that any swimmer had swept both breaststroke distances at two consecutive Games — the moment a boy who began swimming in an Arakawa pool built his own empire in the breaststroke world.
Retirement and a Gift to the Next Generation
At the 2012 London Olympics he won a silver medal in the 4×100 m medley relay. In 2013 he married Chisa, former lead vocalist of the group girl next door, and the following year his first daughter was born. In 2016, after failing to qualify for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, he announced his retirement.
But the story of Kitajima and the water did not end there. After retiring he became vice chairman of the Tokyo Swimming Association and founded the swim school KITAJIMA AQUATICS. In 2020 he became chief executive of the International Swimming League professional team Tokyo Frog Kings. In 2023 he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame, his achievements recorded permanently on the world stage.
Kosuke Kitajima was a man who raced on feeling. He roared on the biggest stages, expressed the joy of victory with his whole body, and came to symbolize an era with the plain words "it feels so good." His personal motto was "composure" — yet beneath that calm burned a passion hotter than anyone's.
In the grit that carried him from a downtown Arakawa pool to the summit of the world, and in the way he continues, even after retirement, to pass the joy of swimming to the next generation through schools and teams, you can see the pure heart of someone who truly loves the water. That roaring face after the race is etched forever into the history of Japanese sport.