caption fullname death_date birth_place nationality birth_date image article_title strokes name
kusuo kitamura in 1932 北村 久寿雄 06 june 1996 kōchi , japan japan 19 october 1917 kusuokitamura.jpg kusuo kitamura
 freestyle kusuo kitamura
kusuo kitamura

kitamura was born in kōchi , japan .
selected as one of the youngest members of the japanese swimming team in the 1932 los angeles olympics , he won the gold medal in the men 's 1500 meter freestyle swimming event .
he was 14 years and 309 days old at the time , setting a record for youngest ever swimmer to win a gold medal at the olympic games .
this record lasted until the 1988 summer olympics in seoul , korea , when hungarian swimmer krisztina egerszegi won the gold in the women 's 200-meter backstroke event .
however , kitamaura still holds the record for the youngest male swimmer .
after the 1932 olympics , kitamura retired from competitive sports , and eventually graduated from tokyo imperial university , and obtained a job at the japanese ministry of labor .
he rose through the bureaucratic ranks , eventually becoming a department head , before retiring in 1984 to become a director at sumitomo cement .
