TOMITA Uchu

Date of Birth: 28 Feb 1989

Age: 32

Gender: Male

Sport Class: S11,SM11

Place of birth: KUMAMOTO

Birth Country:

Japan

Place of residence : YOKOHAMA

Residence Country:

Japan

Events and Medals
Records
Schedule
Bio
General Interest
Milestones

Events and Medals

Discipline	Event	Rank	Medal
Swimming	Men's 400m Freestyle - S11	2
	Men's 100m Butterfly - S11	2
	Men's 200m Individual Medley - SM11	3
	Mixed 4x100m Freestyle Relay - 49 Points JPN Japan	5

Schedule

Start Time	Location	Event	Status
	Tokyo Aquatics Centre	Men's 400m Freestyle - S11 Heat 1	Finished
	Tokyo Aquatics Centre	Men's 400m Freestyle - S11 Final	Finished
	Tokyo Aquatics Centre	Men's 200m Individual Medley - SM11 Heat 2	Finished
	Tokyo Aquatics Centre	Men's 200m Individual Medley - SM11 Final	Finished
	Tokyo Aquatics Centre	Mixed 4x100m Freestyle Relay - 49 Points Final	Finished
	Tokyo Aquatics Centre	Men's 100m Butterfly - S11 Heat 1	Finished
	Tokyo Aquatics Centre	Men's 100m Butterfly - S11 Final	Finished

Biographical Information

Highlights

Rank	Event	Year	Location	Result
World Championships
2	400m Freestyle - S11	2019	London, GBR	4:32.90
2	100m Butterfly - S11	2019	London, GBR	1:03.64
4	200m Individual Medley - SM11	2019	London, GBR	2:30.17
7	4x100m Freestyle Relay - 49 Points	2019	London, GBR	4:16.90
10	50m Freestyle - S11	2019	London, GBR	27.80
Asian Para Games
1	100m Freestyle - S11	2018	Jakarta, INA	58.49
2	50m Freestyle - S11	2018	Jakarta, INA	26.91
2	200m Individual Medley - SM11	2018	Jakarta, INA	2:30.94
4	400m Freestyle - S13	2018	Jakarta, INA	4:34.31
7	100m Butterfly - S13	2018	Jakarta, INA	1:03.37

Space swimmer [his given name Uchu also means space in Japanese]. (Twitter profile, 02 Apr 2021; Instagram profile, 19 Jan 2021)

Reading, yoga. (note.com, 22 Jan 2021)

Occupation:

Athlete, Office Worker, Student

Physical Education - Nihon University, Tokyo, JPN

Languages spoken:

English, Japanese

Graduate School of Nippon Sport Science University [NSSU] [JPN] / EY Japan [JPN]

Takumi Uegaki [national], JPN

Other sports:

Before taking up Para sports, he competed at the All Japan Student Competitive Dance Championship while studying at university. (genetics.qlife.jp, 15 Apr 2021)

In 2019 he fractured his left little toe after catching his feet in the lane rope during training. (2020.yahoo.co.jp, 28 Aug 2019)

He began swimming at age three, and was also a competitive dancer at university. He took up Para swimming in 2013. "As the symptoms progressed, it became difficult to continue with competitive dance, so I was looking for a Para sport. I tried various sports including a blind marathon. At the swimming club, I met people with various disabilities, including those with more severe disabilities than myself, and it made me think that my disability was not something special." (genetics.qlife.jp, 15 Apr 2021; sports-kokoro.jp, 12 Jul 2017; Athlete, 11 Sep 2019)

His parents encouraged him to take up the sport in order to improve his health. He competed in swimming in middle school and high school but stopped after he was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa. He returned to the sport, initially as a hobby, but decided to focus on it in 2013 after Tokyo won the bid to host the 2020 Paralympic Games. "At that time I was also working, so I started training on land in parks in the morning, worked as a system engineer during the day, and went swimming at night. After being selected for the national team in 2015, I joined EY Japan as an athlete and decided to take a career in Para swimming seriously." (genetics.qlife.jp, 15 Apr 2021; 1242.com, 22 Jan 2018; sports-news.jp, 07 Sep 2018; sports-tokyo.info, 27 Mar 2017)

To win gold medals in the 400m freestyle and 100m butterfly at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo. (tokyo2020.org, 29 May 2020)

Japanese Para swimmer Takayuki Suzuki. (Athlete, 11 Sep 2019)

Japanese Para swimmer Takuro Yamada. (Athlete, 11 Sep 2019)

Philosophy:

"Spend each day without regrets. If you can't manage to do it, you won't be able to reach your goal." (sanspo.com, 13 Apr 2019)

In 2018 he received the Yokohama Sports Excellence Award in Japan. (Instagram profile, 28 Jan 2019)

In 2018 he received the Kanagawa Prefecture Sports Excellence Citation Award in Japan. (pref.kanagawa.jp, 30 Nov 2018)

General Interest

Classification
S11, SB11, SM11 (IPC, 10 Apr 2020)

Type of Impairment
Vision impairment (sports-kokoro.jp, 12 Jul 2017)

Origin of Impairment
Acquired (sports-kokoro.jp, 12 Jul 2017)

Impairment Details
At age 16 he was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, which first affected his vision in grade 11 at high school. "I didn't expect to be blind at all, so when I got the diagnosis my mind went blank. My parents were also shocked and it took me a while to get to the stage of talking about my impairment. My parents felt a great deal of responsibility for the fact I had a disability due to a hereditary illness. I just felt that we had a period of dark feelings towards each other, but over time we were able to talk about the future, little by little." (genetics.qlife.jp, 15 Apr 2021; Athlete, 11 Sep 2019; sports-tokyo.info, 27 Mar 2017; Para Do YouTube channel, 08 Feb 2017)

General
FURTHER EDUCATION
He has studied sports coaching at the Graduate School of Health and Sport Science at Nippon Sport Science University in Tokyo, Japan. (sports-news.jp, 07 Sep 2018; sports-kokoro.jp, 12 Jul 2017; sanspo.com, 13 Apr 2019; paraphoto.org, 16 Mar 2021)

Social Media

Athlete Blog: http://moshichu.hatenablog.com
https://www.facebook.com/uchu.tomita
https://instagram.com/uchu_tomita/
https://twitter.com/UchuTomita
Athlete Website: https://note.com/uchu_tomita

Legend

:: Silver Medal
:: Bronze Medal
:: Gold Medal Event
:: Silver Medal Event
:: Bronze Medal Event

Timing and scoring provided by OMEGA. Results powered by Atos