Ichika Kajimoto: Japan's Record-Breaking Swimmer

Article

A national swimming record that stood for 22 years is a big deal on its own — that it belongs to an athlete who's also a reigning world champion in an entirely different discipline makes Ichika Kajimoto's rise worth watching closely.

Breaking a 22-Year-Old Record

Kajimoto, 22, broke Japan's women's 800m freestyle national record — a mark that had stood since 2004. Records of that age don't fall often, which underlines just how significant the swim was.

A Dual-Discipline Talent

Beyond pool competition, Kajimoto is an accomplished open water swimmer, winning gold in the 3km knockout sprint at the 2025 World Championships. Competing seriously at a world-championship level in both pool and open water swimming — two disciplines with genuinely different demands — is uncommon, and it's a big part of what makes her a distinctive athlete to follow rather than a single-event specialist.

What To Know

A national record standing for over two decades says something about how difficult it was to break — and Kajimoto did it while also competing at a world-championship level in an entirely different discipline (open water) at the same time, which is a genuinely rare combination in competitive swimming.

Dual-discipline swimmers — competing seriously in both pool and open water events — are relatively unusual internationally, since the two disciplines demand different training approaches (pure speed and technique for pool freestyle versus pacing, navigation, and endurance for open water races). Kajimoto succeeding at a high level in both marks her as a genuinely distinctive athlete within Japanese swimming, not just a specialist who happened to set one record.

What Fans Are Saying

• "A 22-year-old record finally falling is huge, that mark survived a whole generation of swimmers."
• "Being world champion in open water AND breaking a pool record is such a rare combination."
• "Definitely a name to watch going forward."

Original Japanese

• 「22年間破られなかった記録がついに更新されたのは本当にすごい」
• 「オープンウォーターの世界チャンピオンでありながらプールの記録も更新するなんて、珍しい組み合わせ」
• 「これからもっと注目されそうな選手だと思う」

Easy Japanese

梶本樹李選手は、2004年から続いていた女子800m自由形の日本記録を更新しました。プールと海、両方で活躍する若いスイマーです。