Kosuke Hagino

Kosuke Hagino (萩野公介) is a Japanese former competitive swimmer who specialized in the individual medley and 200 m freestyle.

Kosuke Hagino was born in Tochigi, Tochigi, Japan on 15 August 1994.

Hagino made his international breakthrough at the 2012 Olympics held in London.

He qualified First in the 400 m individual medley heats with a new Asian record of 4:10.01, and would go on to win his first international medal with a bronze in the event and again lower his Asian record to a 4:08.94.

Coming into the Championships Hagino had qualified for a full slate of events including the 200 m freestyle, 400 m freestyle, 100 m backstroke, 200 m backstroke, 200 m individual medley and the 400 m individual medley.

In his first event the 400 m freestyle Hagino won his first silver medal at the World Championships medal with a new Japanese record of 3:44.82.

In the Finals of 200 m Freestyle, Hagino clocked a personal best time of 1:45.94.; he came in 5th.

Nearly an hour later, he was swimming, this time in the Finals of the 100 m backstroke.

He was placed seventh in 53.93, much slower than his National record of 53.10 (which would have won him a silver medal. )

On day five, after qualifying for the final, Hagino won another silver medal in the 200 m individual medley.

His time of 1:56.29 was about half a second off his Nationals time of 1:55.74; he won Silver The following day, he led off his team, in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay, and was able to take off a hundredth of a second off his 200 m free time from day three, swimming a 1:45.93.

He was placed fifth in the 200 m backstroke final that night, finishing in 1:55.42.

On the final night of competition, despite being the favorite, Hagino was only able to manage fifth place, finishing in 4:10.77.

Although only winning two medals in his seven events, he was the only swimmer at the meet to swim six individual events.

On day one of the Pan Pacs in Gold Coast, Hagino swam in the 200m freestyle.

Hagino swam fastest in the heats, with 1:46.60, besting second place Conor Dwyer by five hundredths of a second.

He later shaved almost half a second off his heats timing in the 'A' final, bringing it down to 1:46.08, a tenth of a second behind Thomas Fraser-Holmes.

Hagino would earn a silver, his first medal of the meet.

On day two, Hagino swam in the 400m individual medley in his first event of the day.

Hagino again swam fastest in the heats with 4:11.48, around three tenths of a second faster than second place and long-time rival, fellow Japanese Daiya Seto.

Hagino would again swim fastest in the 'A' final with 4:08.31 for his first gold and second medal of the meet.

Hagino later swam in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay as the lead, clocking 1:46.13, touching first for Japan in the first leg.

Japan finished second to the U.S. with 7:05.30, settling for silver.

On day three, Hagino swam in the 400m freestyle.

Hagino swam with a time of 3:48.92 in the heats, at fourth place.

He then swam 3:44.56 in the 'A' final, finishing more than a second behind winner Park Tae-hwan.

He earned his third silver and fourth medal of the meet.

Hagino then swam in the 200m backstroke, where he qualified fifth with 1:56.94.

He finished last in the 'A' final, where he surprisingly swam almost three seconds slower than his heats timing.

It would be Hagino's only medal-less event.

On day four and Hagino's final event, he swam in the 200m individual medley that featured a competitive field including teammate Seto and American legends Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte and Tyler Clary.

Hagino swam fastest in the heats with a 1:57.61, besting second place Seto by more than a half a second.

He again swam fastest in the 'A' final, swimming 1:56.62, narrowly out-touching Phelps by two hundredths of a second.

He earned his second gold of the meet.

He is a four-time Olympic medalist, most notably winning gold in the 400 m individual medley at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Hagino holds the Asian Records in the 400 m individual medley (long course), the 100 m and 200 m individual medley (short course).

With Team Japan, he holds the Asian Record for the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay (short course).

Hagino attends Toyo University, and is coached by Norimasa Hirai.

He is one of the only two Asians to have been voted World Swimmer of the Year.

He married the singer miwa in 2019 fall and the couple has been expecting a child; its birth expected some time in 2019 winter.