Reiko Nakamura

Reiko Nakamura (中村 礼子, Nakamura Reiko; born May 17, 1982 in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture)^[1] is a Japanese Olympic and Asian record-holding swimmer.

Reiko Nakamura

Personal information
Full name	中村 礼子
Nationality	Japan
Born	(1982-05-17) May 17, 1982 (age 43) Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture
Height	166 cm (5 ft 5 in)
Weight	53 kg (117 lb)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	backstroke
Medal record Women's swimming Representing  Japan Olympic Games 2004 Athens 200 m backstroke 2008 Beijing 200 m backstroke World Championships (LC) 2005 Montreal 200 m backstroke 2007 Melbourne 100 m backstroke 2007 Melbourne 200 m backstroke World Championships (SC) 2002 Moscow 200 m backstroke Pan Pacific Championships 2006 Victoria 200 m backstroke Universiade 2001 Beijing 200 m backstroke 2003 Daegu 200 m backstroke 2003 Daegu 100 m backstroke 2003 Daegu 4×100 m medley

Swimming career

Nakamura retired from swimming in 2008, after her final Olympic Games. At the time she retired, she was the current Asian record holder in both the 100 m and 200 m women’s backstroke disciplines.^[2]

Olympics

She swam in the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games, winning the bronze medals in the 200m backstroke at both editions. In doing so, she became the first Japanese woman in 72 years to win medals at consecutive Olympic games.^[3] She retired shortly after achieving this, in October 2008.^[3]

Pan Pacific Championships

Nakamura won the gold medal in the 200 m backstroke at the 2006 Pan Pacific Championships held in Victoria, Canada. In doing so, she set a new Pan Pacific Championships record in the event, swimming 2:08.86. This beat the previous record of 2:10.02, set by her teammate Takami Igarashi earlier that same day in the qualifying heats.^[4]

Records

World records

Nakamura held the Women’s 100-meter backstroke world record between March 4, 2001 and November 29, 2001.^[5]

She also held the Women’s 200-meter short course backstroke world record between February 23, 2008 and April 11, 2008. Nakamura claimed the record by swimming 2:03.24 at the Japan Open short course swimming championships, beating Natalie Coughlan’s previous record of 2:03.62 set in 2001.^[6]

Olympic records

At the 2008 Olympics, Nakamura set the Asian Records and Japanese Records in both the 100 and 200 backstrokes (59.36 and 2:07.13).^[2]

World Championship records

At the 2007 World Championships, she swam to a new Japanese Record in the 100 back (1:00.40) in finishing third. Eight days later, she lowered the mark to 1:00.29 in winning the 2007 Japan Championships.^[7]

Pan Pacific Championship records.

Nakamura set a new Pan Pacific Championships Women’s 200 m backstroke record of 2:08.86 during her gold medal winning swim at the 2006 Championships held in Victoria, Canada.^[4]

See also

• World record progression 100 metres backstroke
• World record progression 200 metres backstroke