Do you know what day August 2 is? The answer: exactly 91 years since Kinue Hitomi won Japan's first women's medal (silver) in the 800 meters at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. By coincidence, Hitomi, who died young at 24, also passed on August 2, 1931. A strange alignment.
Less than a year remains until Tokyo 2020 opens (July 24, 2020). Marking this memorable day for Hitomi, a "Kinue Hitomi Retrospective" (hosted by The Mainichi Newspapers) has opened in the display space (show window) in front of Mainichi Hall at the west end of the Palaceside Building first basement.
Hitomi appeared in June on NHK's Sunday-night drama Idaten; she is truly a pioneer of Japanese women athletes. Including unofficial marks she set world records in the 100, 200 and long jump, and would have been a Carl Lewis-class presence today.
In the 1920s when she shone, track events were not yet established as they are now, and the Olympics had barely opened their doors to women. Hitomi first stood on the world stage in August 1926 at an international meet in Gothenburg, Sweden. It was called the "2nd Women's World Games," not the Olympics. She took first in the long jump with a world record 5.50 meters and more. Then she competed at the Amsterdam Olympics in July–August 1928. Her specialty, the long jump, was not on the program; she targeted the 100 meters but, unexpectedly, went out in the semifinal. So she ran the 800 meters, for which she had at least entered. A distance she had never raced, yet after a dead heat with a German athlete she took silver. That was August 2.
Hitomi was also a sports reporter for the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, predecessor of The Mainichi Newspapers, and is known for advocating the status of women's sport and for contributing to international exchange by competing around the world.
This retrospective shows newspapers reporting her feats, a chronology of her 24-year life =photo at the end= and photos from those times, plus the long-jump gold from the 1930 "3rd Women's World Games" (not the Olympics) =photo left= .
Photos right, below show Hitomi smiling with medals after returning from that meet.
On the evening of the 2nd The Mainichi Newspapers held a talk event in Mainichi Hall supporting women in sport, "Kinue Hitomi — the Pioneer Who Ran Through" (backed by Chiyoda Ward). Yuko Arimori, the second Japanese woman track medalist after Hitomi (marathon silver at Barcelona 1992, bronze at Atlanta 1996; also from Okayama), and others look back on Hitomi's achievements and talk about hopes and athletes to watch toward Tokyo 2020.
The retrospective runs through Friday the 9th, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. each day except Sunday the 4th.
