Paralympic swimmer Takayuki Suzuki was, to use an apt turn of phrase, thrown into the deep end in his first race at the Paris Games.
The men’s 50-meter breaststroke race in the SB3 class was a straight final. So there were no earlier races to help Suzuki warm up or get acclimated to competing in the pool at Paris La Defense Arena. It was winner-take-all from the start and, despite being in his sixth Paralympics, Suzuki felt a little nervous.
“I had to do my best performance in the final,” Suzuki told The Japan Times. “Only in the final. So that's why I was a bit nervous.”
Suzuki had one of the best performances of his life in that race on Aug. 29. He delivered Japan’s first gold medal of the Paris Paralympics and set a new national record with a time of 48.04 seconds. Suzuki finished more than a second ahead of silver medalist Efrem Morelli, of Italy, who swam the distance in 49.41.
The triumph was even more meaningful to the 37-year-old, who was born with limb deficiencies in both legs and his right arm, because he set a personal best in the race. That was a goal he had chased since setting a world record with a time of 48.49 during the heats at the Beijing Games in 2008 before going on to win gold.
“I had the best chance of winning the gold medal in the 50-meter breaststroke,” Suzuki said. “So I thought (a time) under 49 seconds was needed to achieve the target. Unfortunately, I could not get under 50 until July. But I jumped to 48 seconds at a domestic competition in Fukushima in July and got the fastest time in the holding camp in Amiens, France, a week before or 10 days before the actual race. So I felt a mixture of confidence and nervousness on the starting block. I focused on swimming and my performance in the water, and I felt excited and relieved at the same time with the result because it’s been 16 years to get the personal best.”
Suzuki, who has been called a para-swimming legend by some in Japan, earned a medal in each individual event he swam in Paris. In addition to his gold in the 50-meter breaststroke, Suzuki earned a pair of silver medals in the men’s 50- and 100-meter freestyles and a bronze in the 200 freestyle. He has competed in six consecutive Paralympics and has three golds among his 14 medals.
The 2024 Paralympics enjoyed large crowds and enthusiastic support in Paris, which was in stark contrast to the mostly empty venues at the Tokyo Games, which were postponed until 2021 and held during the COVID-19 pandemic, when fans were told to stay away.
“I felt like I was in the middle of a football stadium or something like that,” Suzuki said about the crowd noise in France.
The support for the Paralympics in Paris — which came after initially sluggish ticket sales — raised hopes for many about the future of the Games and para sports, which help bring attention to people with disabilities.
“I feel like people's understanding is good and improving in Japan and all over the world,” Suzuki said. “So I think the Paralympic Games help that.”
In May, Suzuki entered into a global partnership with major food maker Ajinomoto, which provided nutrition and support for Japanese athletes at the Olympics and Paralympics. In addition to lending nutritional support to Suzuki, the company says it is also trying to lift the profile of Paralympic athletes in Japan.
“Athletes themselves are such big stars, but in Japan, the Paralympic Games do not (get a lot of) attention compared with other countries,” Sports and Exercise Nutrition Group Manager Shimpei Ashina said. “So what Ajinomoto is trying to do is not only support nutrition (through) Japanese food or supplements, we believe that we have to show Japanese people how Suzuki-san and other athletes are such great people, not only as athletes, as humans.”
For Suzuki, a more inclusive society begins with awareness.
“I think people with disabilities need to be more visible, like in the media or everywhere,” he said. “For example, maybe people know how to support older people because they have met a lot of them, but they might not know how to deal with people with impairments because they have hardly met them. So that’s the key, I think. So that’s why I think people with disabilities need to be more visible.”
Ashina, who worked in Brazil before returning to Japan, agrees.
“Suzuki-san and I believe sports can contribute to Japanese society,” he said. “With the Paralympic sports, it can be much, much better. So what we are doing with the Victory Project (the program Ajinomoto launched in 2003 in cooperation with the Japanese Olympic Committee to support athletes) is not only nutrition support ... we believe that supporting Paralympic athletes lets people know about Paralympic athletes. Paralympic athletes have the energy to contribute to Japanese society.”
Suzuki got his start in the pool at a young age after being encouraged by his family.
“Because I don’t have both legs, I couldn’t stand in the water during PE lessons in primary school,” he said. “So I started swimming. I started competing when I was 15 or 16, and then I realized I might be fast in (my category). Winning medals or getting PB (personal best) are my motivation to continue to train.”
Suzuki’s training methods have evolved as he has gotten older. He lived in England and trained with a coach there before the Tokyo Games, and began working with his current coach in Japan in January. He says nutrition was essential to his training before the Paris Games. His main focus, however, is recovery, which includes sleeping more and doing more massages and other exercises to maintain his body.
“In the water, I feel the same,” he said. “I can swim with the same times or faster times than when I was younger, just my body changed. I need more time to recover.”
At 37, Suzuki is not sure how much longer he will continue to swim competitively, although he is thinking of competing in the Asian Para Games in Nagoya in October 2026.
“I’m just a para swimmer,” he said. “I want people to watch the Paralympic Games and para swimming competitions. All I can do is just try my best and do my best performance and hopefully get PB and more medals.”
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