Yoshi Oyakawa

It is with great honor O*H*I*O Masters Swim Club bestows the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award to Yoshi Oyakawa.

Yoshi is one of the few members of O*H*I*O Masters Swim Club to compete in the Olympics. Yoshi was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1973 and was inducted into the International Masters Swimming Hall of Fame in 2017. His achievements are so numerous and incredible he is most deserving of this award.

The following excerpt is from SWIM magazine, July-August 1996. It is offered as background to the numerous achievements this humble man has accomplished.

Yoshi Oyakawa won 23 major titles in his remarkable career as the last of the great straight-armed backstrokers. He won the 1952 Olympic backstroke gold medal at Helsinki in 1:05.4,  finally breaking Adolph Kiefer’s Olympic record of 1.05.9 set in 1936. Oyakawa won 6 Big Ten, 7 NCAA and 9 NAAU Gold Medals during his distinguished career under coaches Sparky Kawamoto, Hilo, Hawaii, and Mike Peppe, at Ohio State University.

Oyakawa started competitive swimming late (at age 15), turned over on his back at age 16, and was on his way to the Olympics at age 18. Yoshi went to his second Olympics (1956 Melbourne) as an Air Force Second Lieutenant and was elected as a team co-captain. He finished eighth after breaking his 1952 Olympic record in the prelims. “I slipped at the start,” he recalled. “The favored Australians finished first and second and they were a good second or two faster than everyone else.”

Neither time was as good as his 1:04.7 (in 1952) winning the event at the U.S. Olympic trials in Detroit.

Yoshi and his late wife, “Mike,” coached Oak Hills High School Swim Team where Yoshi was named Ohio High School Coach of the Year for 1972.

  • After all of that, he began competing when USMS began in 1970. Yoshi Oyakawa has earned 581 national and USMS records during his Masters career.
    27 FINA Masters World Records (all in backstroke events)
  • 3 FINA Masters World Championships – Backstroke and Freestyle event.
    • 8 Gold Medals
    • 2 Silver Medals
    • 1 Bronze Medal
  • 35 USMS National Records
  • 7 USMS National Relay Records
  • 35 USMS All-American Rankings – Individual
  • 16 USMS All-American Rankings – Relay
  • 393 USMS Top 10 Rankings – Individual
  • 143 USMS Top 10 Rankings – Relay
    *Complete list of Yoshi’s USMS Top 10 events, times and age groups is available at:
    http://www.usms.org/people/01PN5

Yoshi’s favorite Masters memory:
“Jack Groselle was always looking for relays and records and he realized that the four of us (Jack, Yoshi, Peter Van Dijk and Dave Quiggin) would be able to break two national relay records (200 Free Relay and 200 Medley Relay) at USMS Long Course Meters National Championships in Federal Way, Washington. We traveled across the country with the aim to break the records. Registered under GOST – Greater Ohio Swim
Team – we broke both records but the times were only good enough for second place.”

Yoshi’s favorite individual Masters memory:
“Turning 85 at the Pan Am Games in 2018. Hadn’t been in too good of shape, it was a five day meet and by day five I “got in shape.” I had a new swimsuit and wanted to break the record in the 50 meter backstroke event in the 85-89 age group, came in second. A couple months later I worked hard to try and break that record at the End of Summer Spectacular LCM meet in Avon. I added 1.46 seconds to my time and didn’t break the record.”