Yoshiyuki Tsuruta
Yoshiyuki Tsuruta at the 1928 Olympics
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| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | 鶴田 義行 | |||||||||||||||
| National team |
 Japan
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| Born |
October 1, 1903 Ishiki, Kagoshima, Japan |
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| Died | July 24, 1986 (aged 82) | |||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | |||||||||||||||
| Strokes | Breaststroke | |||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Yoshiyuki Tsuruta (鶴田 義行 Tsuruta Yoshiyuki?) (October 1, 1903 – July 24, 1986) was a Japanese swimmer. He won a gold medal in the Amsterdam Olympics and the Los Angeles Olympics.
Tsuruta was born in Ishiki Village, Kagoshima District, Kagoshima prefecture, Japan. (Present Kagoshima City). He went to work for the Japanese Government Railways in 1920, but volunteered for the Japanese marines at the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Sasebo Naval District in 1924.
Tsuruta was sent to compete in the 2nd Meiji Shrine Games in 1925, winning the 200-meter breaststroke event with a time of 3 minutes, 12.3 seconds. Selected to be a member of the 1928 Japanese Olympic team, he beat his personal record in the semi-finals with a time of 2 minutes 50.0 seconds. During the finals held on August 8, he won the gold medal with a new world record time of 2 minutes, 48.8 seconds. Tsuruta was the second Japanese to be awarded with a gold medal (after Mikio Oda in the Triple jump on August 2).
After his return to Japan, Tsuruta enrolled in the law school of Meiji University. He continued to swim, setting a new world record of 2 minutes 45.0 seconds for the 200-meter breaststroke in 1929 in a competition in Kyoto. On his graduation from Meiji University, he was employed by the South Manchurian Railway, who sponsored his participation in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. Although teammate Reizo Koike had set a new world record in the semifinals, Tsuruta defeated Koike in the finals, with a time of 2 minutes 45.2 seconds, becoming the first Japanese to win gold medals in two consecutive Olympic games.
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