Takashi "Halo" Hirose

Takashi "Halo" Hirose was a Japanese-American swimmer.[1]

In 1937 he joined the "Three Year Swim Club" of Soichi Sakamoto.[2]

He was the first Japanese-American to represent the United States in any international swimming competition, and the first to set a swimming world record. He set that record in 1938 as a member of the United States’s 4 × 100 m freestyle relay team.[3][4] He also won the United States National 100m title in 1941.[3]

He would have competed in the Olympics in 1940 and 1944, but it was canceled those years because of World War II.[1][3] During that war he fought as part of the 442nd Infantry Regiment and the 100th Infantry Battalion, and earned five battle stars, the Combat Infantryman Badge and a Presidential Unit Citation.[4][2] He also had his legs temporarily paralyzed due to trench foot.[2]

After the war ended he attended Ohio State University, where he was an All-American three times, was an NCAA champion in the 100 free, and helped Ohio State win Big Ten, NCAA, and AAU team titles.[2] He graduated from that university in 1949.[4] He later became Hawaii's chief probation officer, and eventually retired in 1982.[4]

In 1987 he was inducted into Ohio State University's Sports Hall of Fame.[3]

He died in 2002 and was survived by his daughter Sono Hirose-Hulbert and his wife Kiyomi.[4]

In 2017 he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as a "Pioneer Swimmer".[3]

Interview of Hirose by Hiroshi Yamauchi

Further reading

The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids and Their Quest for Olympic Glory, by Julie Checkoway (2016)

References

  1. 1 2 "Community Works to Fill Wikipedia's Asian-American, Pacific Islander Gaps". Nbcnews.com. Retrieved 2018-07-05.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Aimee Trout-Foster (2017-02-22). "Swimmer Takashi "Halo" Hirose Inducted into ISHOF; First Japanese-American to Swim for the USA - Swimming World News". Swimmingworldmagazine.com. Retrieved 2018-07-05.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Takashi "Halo" Hirose". ISHOF.org. Retrieved 2018-07-05.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Champion swimmer Takashi 'Halo' Hirose dead at 79 | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper". The Honolulu Advertiser. 2002-09-04. Retrieved 2018-07-05.
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