Kinue Hitomi

Kinue Hitomi at the 1928 Olympics
Personal information
Native name	人見 絹枝
Nationality	Japanese
Born	(1907-01-01)January 1, 1907 Okayama,Japan
Died	August 2, 1931(1931-08-02) (aged 24) Osaka, Japan
Sport
Sport	Women's athletics
Event	All
Medal record Women'sathletics Representing Japan Olympic Games 1928 Amsterdam 800 metres Women's World Games 1926 Gothenburg Long jump 1926 Gothenburg Standing long jump 1930 Prague Long Jump 1926 Gothenburg Discus 1930 Prague Triathlon 1926 Gothenburg 100 yards 1930 Prague 60 metres 1930 Prague Javelin

Kinue Hitomi (人見 絹枝,Hitomi Kinue; January 1, 1907 – August 2, 1931) was aJapanesetrack and field athlete. She was theworld record holder in several events in the 1920s – 1930s and was the first Japanese woman to win anOlympicmedal. She was also the first woman to represent Japan at the Olympics.^[1]

Hitomi was born in what is now part ofOkayama City. In November 1923 during the 2nd Okayama Prefectural Women's Games, she set an unofficial national record of 4m67 in thelong jump event. In April 1924, Hitomi entered what is now theJapan Women's College of Physical Education. She returned to Okayama in October 1924 to participate in the 3rd Okayama Prefectural Women's Games, where she set an unofficial world record of 10m33 in thetriple jump event. She bested this record the following month at the 1924 Meiji Shrine Games in Tokyo, with a distance of 11m35 and also set an unofficial world record for theJavelin throw of 26m37.

In October 1925, Hitomi participated in the 4th Osaka Games, winning first place in the50 metres event, and again besting her unofficial world record for the triple jump with a distance of 11m62. In the 1925 Meiji Shrine Games in Tokyo, she won both the 50 metres event and the triple jump.

In April 1926, Hitomi went to work for theOsakaMainichi Shimbun newspaper. In May, she set new unofficial national records for the long jump (5m06),shot put (10m39),100m hurdles (15m4) at the 3rd Women's Olympics held by the newspaper at Miyoshino. In June, in a completion sponsored by theTokyo Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, she set new unofficial national records for the long jump (5m75) and the4 × 100 metres relay (52s2).

In August 1926, Hitomi was selected to attend the"2èmes Jeux mondiaux féminins FSFI" games atGothenburg,Sweden as the only Japanese woman athlete. She travelled by theTrans-Siberian Railway alone toMoscow, where a reporter from theMainichi Shimbun met her and escorted her to Sweden. Competing in a total of six events, she received a gold medal for the long jump, with a distance of 5m50, setting a new official world record, as well as a gold medal for thestanding long jump (2m49), silver medal for thediscus throw (32m61) and bronze medal for the100-yard dash (12.0 seconds). She also received an honorary prize fromAlice Milliat, president ofFédération Sportive Féminine Internationale (FSFI) for the most individual points at 15.^[2]

In May 1927, at the 3rd Women's Athletic Meet at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, Hitomi set two new unofficial world records for the 200-meter run (26.1 seconds) and the standing jump (2m61). She also tied the world record for the 100-meter run at a meet in Osaka in June. At a meet in Tokyo in October of the same year, she unofficially tied the world record for the 50-meter sprint (6.4 seconds) as well as the 100-meter sprint (12.4 seconds). Hitomi continued to set unofficial new world records in early 1928, with the 400-meter run (59.0 seconds) and 100-meter sprint (12.4 seconds) in Tokyo. At the Olympic qualifying event in Osaka, she set new official world records for the long jump (5m98) and the 100-meter spring (12.0 seconds), and was one of the first women to be included into a Japanese Olympic Team.

Shortly before the Olympics, Kinue won the BritishWAAA Championships title in the 220 yards and javelin events at the1928 WAAA Championships.^[3][4][5]

During the1928 Summer Olympics inAmsterdam, Hitomi was the only Japanese woman athlete to compete. She entered the 100m, discus, and high jump individual events but had been concentrating most on the 100m. However, she lost this event in semifinals. She then decided to join 800m in haste (she hadn't run an 800m race at any official competition until that time), and as last-minute entries were still permitted, she was allowed to compete. Hitomi ran 2:26.2 in the preliminary and received a silver medal in the final with a time of 2:17.6, in a race won byLina Radke in 2:16.8. She became the first Japanese woman to win an Olympic medal.^[2]

In April 1929 Hitomi achieved 217 points in the triathlon (100m, high jump, javelin) setting an unofficial world record at the 6th Japan Women's Olympics at Miyoshino. In May, she set an official world record for the 200-meter run with a time 24.7 seconds in Tokyo. This was followed in October by new unofficial world records of 12.0 seconds for the 100m and 7.5 for the 60m sprint inShenyang.

In early 1930, Hitomi was asked to lecture to women's schools around the country. In July, she set new official national records for the long jump and javelin throw. In September, she participated in the"3èmes Jeux mondiaux féminins FSFI" games at Prague with five younger Japanese athletes. During this event, she won the gold medal for the long jump, silver medal for thetriathlon and bronze medal for the javelin throw, despite suffering from a fever.^[2] She was also awarded a silver medal for her 12 individual points.

After the event, the Japanese team went on tour toWarsaw,Berlin,Brussels,Paris andLondon for competitions within the next half-month.This extremely tough schedule took a toll on her health. Even after her return to Japan, she was asked to lecture, and visited sponsors and contributors in many Japanese cities without much rest. She was also surprised by the unexpected hostile reception to her athletic successes by the Japanese public. On March 25, 1931, she entered a hospital in Osaka under a false name to avoid publicity. Hitomi died frompneumonia on August 2, just three years after her Amsterdam Olympic 800m final.^[6]

• 
  Kinue Hitomi:Silver medalist of Woman's 800m Athletics at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic Games

• Idaten (TV series)
• Japan at the 1928 Summer Olympics

• Schiot, Molly (October 2016).Game changers: the unsung heroines of sports history (1st ed.). New York: Simon and Schuster.ISBN 9781501137099.OCLC 944380525.
• Christensen, Karen. International Encyclopedia of Women and Sports. Macmillan Reference USA, 2001.ISBN 0028649524

Wikimedia Commons has media related toKinue Hitomi.

• International Association of Athletics Federations
• Official Website of the Olympic Movement
• sporting-heroes.net
• Mainichi Shimbun

• 1907 births
• 1931 deaths
• Sportspeople from Okayama
• Athletes from Okayama Prefecture
• Japanese women sprinters
• Japanese women middle-distance runners
• Japanese women long jumpers
• Japanese women triple jumpers
• Olympic women sprinters
• Olympic women middle-distance runners
• Olympic athletes for Japan
• Olympic silver medalists for Japan
• Olympic silver medalists in athletics
• Athletes (track and field) at the 1928 Summer Olympics
• Medalists at the 1928 Summer Olympics
• Women's World Games medalists
• Japan Championships in Athletics winners
• Deaths from pneumonia in Japan
• 20th-century Japanese sportswomen
• World record setters in the sport of athletics

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles containing Japanese-language text
• Commons category link is on Wikidata