Daichi Suzuki
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| Medal record | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Daichi Suzuki |
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| Men’s Swimming | |||
Competitor for  Japan |
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| Olympic Games | |||
| Gold | 1988 Seoul | 100 m backstroke | |
| Pan Pacific Championships | |||
| Silver | 1987 Brisbane | 100m Backstroke | |
Daichi Suzuki, Ph.D (Medical Science) (鈴木大地 Suzuki Daichi?, born on March 10, 1967 in Chiba, Japan) is a former backstroke swimmer who earned a gold medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.
In the early 1980s, he was a budding high school swimmer in his native country, Suzuki, a national champion backstroker looking to further his career at the international level, learned about the submarine dolphin kick Jesse Vassallo, one of the top backstoker in the late 1970s was performing, and realized he could implement the same technique during his race. Suzuki combined his creativity and audacity together with sprinkling suggestions provided by Vassallo, and began work on developing a backstroke start that would cover the first 25m entirely underwater.
At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, Suzuki unveiled the new underwater tactic. He proved to be the fastest in the world for the first 25 m, but it did not draw much attention as he barely ranked in the top 25 worldwide and was unsuccessful in making the finals in 100 m backstroke. Some criticized his tactic as silly leaving the swimmer in oxygen debt, causing the swimmer to fall off in the latter part of the race.
By 1986, Suzuki was one of the top ten 100 m backstrokers in the world. At the 1987 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, he blasted out to a lead with his underwater dolphin kicks in the 100 m backstroke but faded to a third place finish. While his underwater dolphin kick strategy was beginning to draw more attention as a viable strategic tool, it had its share of doubters.
One believer of the underwater dolphin kick included David Berkoff of the United States. He combined thirty miles of running each week with rigorous pool workouts to develop his underwater dolphin kicks. Berkoff was planning on extending his dolphin kick to 35 m from the start and 15 m from the turn. At the American Olympic Trials in 1988, Berkoff broke the world record in 100 m backstroke being underwater for the first 35 m and 15 m from the turn, exactly half the racing distance.
Berkoff was the leading contender to win gold medal during 100 m backstroke at the 1988 Summer Olympics, and then earned a prohibitive favorite after re-setting the world record in the prelims. In the finals, everyone was focused on how much Berkoff would beat his world record due to his underwater dolphin kick. However, in a major upset, Berkoff was beaten and Suzuki won the gold medal.
Suzuki, who four years prior introduced the underwater dolphin kicks to the world by being submerged for 25 m, won the race by matching Berkoff underwater implementing his "Vasallo kicks" for 35 m, 10 m beyond his normal underwater distance, for the first and only time in his career. Since Suzuki and Beroff's tale was broadcasted around the globe, the floodgates were open and the swimmers around the world rushed to apply the same underwater strategy during their races.
At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, Mark Tewksbury of Canada, who five years prior stated his dislike for swimming underwaters won the gold medal in 100 m backstroke by implementing the same underwater dolphin kick for 25 m from the start and 15 m from the turn.
The theoretical principle was quite simple. If the speed generated through the underwater dolphin kick is faster than the speed generated during a backstroke lap on the surface of the water, the underwater dolphin kick would become the standard and preferred method of swimming this race – assuming the swimmer had the lung capacity to hold his/her breath. It did not take long for some swimmers to catch on. Soon other swimmers would improve their swimming and swimming backstroke soon became faster than swimming butterfly.
After his retirement, Suzuki studied at Juntendo University Graduate School where he earned his Ph.D in researches and analysis of water exercise, lifestyle, habit and health conditions. Suzuki is the second Japanese Olympic gold medalist that earned a Ph.D.
Regarding his international experiences, he was sent by his school as a visiting researcher to the University of Colorado at Boulder, and then again was also dispatched to Harvard University varsity swim team as a guest coach by the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) before he went back to Juntendo University Graduate School. He is currently a head coach of the varsity swimming team of his school. He also is a committee member of the JOC Athlete Committee, a committee member of the Competitive Swimming Committee, Japan Swimming Federation, and executive member of the World Olympians Association (WOA), and executive member of Japan Olympians Association, and a board member of the Japan Anti-Doping Agency. He often appears on nation-wide TV and radio programs in Japan as a commentator for sports. He has also published several books about swimming, sports science, and health.
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