Office for Sports Promotion

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government provides support to improve the competitiveness of Tokyo athletes so that they can play an active role on the international stage including the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Established a certification system.

On this page, we will interview certified athletes on the theme of ``Let's grow ourselves through sports and think about a better relationship between sports and society.''

14th Space Tomita (Koto Ward/Chiyoda Ward) Visually Impaired Swimming

【profile】
Tomita Uchuu Born February 1989, 2, Kumamoto Prefecture, Graduated from Nihon University
Nippon Sport Science University Graduate School / EY Advisory and Consulting Co., Ltd.
CanAmOpen 100m butterfly, 1500m freestyle champion (2015)

The Tokyo 2020 Paralympics gave me a chance in life
Aim for your dreams without forgetting your sense of adventure and willingness to take on challenges.

I want to help children who are struggling.Actively engages in activities to deepen understanding of people with disabilities

“I think the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics gave me a really big chance. If the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics hadn’t been decided, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet so many different people and I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to grow.As an athlete, I'm grateful to be able to take on this big stage, and I want to do what I can to the best of my ability."Visually impaired swimmer Space Tomita not only practices to improve his own competitive ability, but also actively participates in symposiums and lectures to spread understanding of parasports.

Of these, the most important thing is the special classes for children. ``Children are worried about various things, get hurt, and feel depressed, but I started to think with pride that I could be of help to such children. When I spoke in front of the students, they listened very intently, and afterwards I heard many happy comments.I myself received a lot of energy.''

Things like when my eyesight started to deteriorate, and how I felt when I couldn't do more and more things.How did you decide to live from there?What you are currently working towards towards your goal.I hope that by honestly conveying my experiences and thoughts, I can make the children realize something.
On the other hand, he considers it his job to advocate for improvements in the environment surrounding para-athletes.
　``Nowadays, para athletes are attracting more attention, and various people are helping athletes who aim to compete in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.While I am thankful for this, I still feel that para athletes are still struggling a lot. I also feel frustrated that I may not be able to fully communicate the people who are participating in the Paralympic Games and what kind of opportunities they would like to have.In the period from now until the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, I will make efforts to broadly improve the environment surrounding paralympic athletes. I think it's an important time for people to understand, so I'm trying to convey what I feel as an athlete.However, as athletes, their first priority is to get results in their own sport, so I'm trying to do everything I can to help them understand. I want to make sure that I don't expand too much and deviate from what I'm aiming for."

From being an engineer to swimming for the disabled, I decided to change jobs and became a semi-professional athlete.

My parents gave me the name "Universe" with the hope that I would grow up to be a person with a heart as big as the universe and go out into the world. ``I wanted to work in a job that valued my sense of adventure and desire to take on challenges, so as my name suggests, I wanted to become an astronaut.''
　Tomita started swimming at the age of three.Since then, he has attended elementary, middle, and high school, but in his second year of high school he developed an illness that gradually caused him to lose his vision.By the time he graduated from high school he was forced to give up continuing to swim as an able-bodied swimmer.Still, she wanted to play sports as an able-bodied person, so she decided that she could do this regardless of her eyesight, so she joined the competitive dance club and even competed in the All Japan Student Competitive Dance Championships.However, although she continued to be active as an amateur athlete after graduating from university, she further lost her perspective and found it difficult to continue competitive dance on the front lines, which led her to become interested in parasports for the first time, and at one point she gave up on it. He is said to have resumed swimming.

``Due to my poor eyesight, I was no longer able to become an astronaut, but I decided to major in the sciences at university, and after graduating, I decided to work as a systems engineer. I felt like swimming was just part of my hobby."
I started to get good times, and started swimming mainly the 400m freestyle.She used to be good at the 200m freestyle, but Tomita's disability class freestyle is only 50m, 100m, and 400m as a Paralympic event, and given her physique, the world's barrier for short distance events may be too high. Yes, I decided to aim at medium range.She improved her time to one of the top in Japan, and in 2015 she broke Asian records in the 400m freestyle and 1500m freestyle.She also has a chance to compete in the Paralympics.

People with disabilities always need someone's help.New challenges emerging

Although he cannot read with his eyes these days, reading books is still one of his important hobbies.Reading a book while listening to the data being read aloud.His favorite novel is Ryoma ga Yuku by Ryotaro Shiba. ``I want to be like Ryoma Sakamoto, who connects people to achieve great things and doesn't stand in the public eye.But as an athlete, you have to stand in the public eye.So for now, I have to work hard with the same spirit as Shinsaku Takasugi. I'll only aim to be Ryoma Sakamoto after I get results. I've already said something pretty big."
　My current goal is to become physically stronger. "This year, we are also planning high-altitude training, and we will repeat the process of adapting the body trained through weight training to underwater practice in a low-oxygen environment and making the body usable for swimming. The results of the training may not be immediate. I'm not sure I can do that, but I'd like to work steadily so that I can grow my body and use that to improve my game time."

What we are currently facing is securing a stable practice area.He makes reservations for facilities with a 50m long waterway from time to time, but it is difficult to make reservations and he says that he is sometimes discouraged by not being able to find a place to practice.Meals are also an issue for Tomita, who lives alone.In between practice sessions, I have to go shopping, cook food with nutritional balance in mind, and eat it all on my own. "There are limits to what you can do alone to become stronger. If you can concentrate on your practice and conditioning while asking for support from those around you, I think your performance will improve even more."

I want to convey the message that I can by creating an environment, achieving results as an athlete, and gaining the attention and support of many people.The more motivated Tomita is, the more things he has to do and the things he wants to do, and his daily schedule is packed to the brim.Although his goal has changed from ``space'' to the ``Paralympic Games,'' his sense of adventure and challenge have remained the same.I want to do something big.Keep swimming tenaciously toward your dreams.

Tapping

Blind swimmers are divided into three classes depending on their visual acuity.Visually impaired athletes are unable to visually confirm the position of the pool wall, and are at risk of injury from hitting the wall, so a person called a tapper is used to tap the pool.Tapping is the act of touching a player's body with a tapping bar just before a goal or turn to let the player know that the wall is approaching.There are still no clear standards for bars, and they are usually made using fishing rods.This tapping technique is also an important element in visually impaired swimming.

[Life skills learned through sports]

By choosing to become a para-athlete, various unexpected opportunities came my way, but by understanding them as opportunities for personal growth rather than as a burden, I was able to tackle them proactively. , is increasing its own withdrawals.Talking about yourself in front of people, negotiating on your own, and improving your competitiveness by coming up with ideas.I'm very curious and caring, so I'm always very busy, but the fact that I have so many things I want to do is the driving force behind my daily life.If you keep in mind that you are now honing your skills to utilize what you learned as an active athlete later on, you will acquire even more skills.