At the age of 14, many around the world are attending school, making friends and also striving hard to make sense of life. Then there are also those who exhibit their excellence in their respective fields at that age and leave the world captivated.

One such prodigy among many around the world is Kyoko Iwasaki. The swimmer from Japan made waves and etched her name in history books when she became the youngest ever swimmer to win a gold medal at the Olympics.

She achieved this mind-boogling feat in 1992 at the Summer Olympics in Barcelona. While competing in the 200m breaststroke event, she tasted glory by bagging a gold medal.

How did the race unfold

Iwasaki got off to a slow start. She found herself in sixth place at the first turn of the 50 m pool, according to the Olympics website. But things changed eventually as she recovered from the sluggish start on the rest of the field throughout the race.

In a dramatic turn of events, the Japanese prodigy came from behind and caught the leaders with one length to go. In the final moments of the tight race, Iwasaki went all in and managed to edge past China’s Lin Li with her last few strokes to win the Olympic title in a time of 2:26.65.

With this win, she found a place in history books, winning an Olympic gold medal at the age of 14 years and 6 days. A rare record she holds to date. Iwasaki’s performance at the 1992 Olympics was so sublime that even she failed to repeat something similar to that in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. She failed to reach the finals of either the 100m or 200m breaststroke events.

What we know about Kyoko Iwasaki

Born in the town of Numazu, just south of the Japanese capital Tokyo, Iwasaki went to Daigo Middle School. For higher education, she went to Nihon University Mishima High School and Nihon University, according to IMDb. She was previously married to Yuya Saito.

The Japanese swimmer participated in the 1992 and 1996 editions of the Olympics. In the 1992 edition, she was not just younger but also comparatively smaller than her fellow Olympic competitors. She stood only 1.57 meters tall and weighed just 45 kilograms. The asteroid 35441 Kyoko was named after her in 1998.

According to online platform Swim Swam, there have been as many as seven swimmers to win an Olympic gold medal before they turned 15. Out of them, three came in individual events.

Prior to Iwasaki, Hungarian legend Krisztina Egerszegi was on top of the list. She had achieved the feat in the Seoul Olympics. At the time she was just 34 days older than Iwasaki was when she won gold in 1988 in the women’s 200 backstroke. Now 48, Iwasaki works as a swimming coach.