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BE Active: Hosei University Students' Challenge] Balancing Academics and Athletics to Go Beyond the Paris Olympics (Airi Mitsui, 5th place finisher in the Women's 200m Butterfly at the World Swimming Championships 2023)
- December 22, 2023
The allure of the butterfly has attracted her to the sport, and she has used her frustrations as a springboard for her athletic career. Envisioning a long-term career, she is trying to balance swimming and schoolwork!
Ms. Airi Mitsui (1st year, Faculty of Intercultural Communication, Department of Intercultural Communication) competed in the World Swimming Championships 2023 Fukuoka for the first time and placed 5th in the women's 200m Butterfly. In this interview, we spoke with Ms. Mitsui about the appeal of the butterfly, her athletic career to date, and balancing schoolwork.
Actually, she started swimming in order to improve her physical fitness for rhythmic gymnastics, which she had learned in her childhood. Although her athletic career seems to have been smooth sailing, she says that the driving force behind her success has been "frustration," and there was a time when she was depressed because she missed qualifying for the World Swimming Championships by one step at the 2022 Japan National Championships.
However, instead of giving up, "I turned my frustration into motivation and focused on overcoming my weaknesses and developing my strengths," says Mr. Mitsui. Thanks to his efforts, he won the 200m butterfly event at the 2023 Japan Championships and earned a ticket to the World Swimming Championships!
Having been on overseas expeditions since elementary and junior high school, Mitsui has always looked forward to experiencing the streets of foreign countries and the local people. In college, she wanted to study world cultures academically, so she decided to study in the Faculty of Intercultural Communication at Hosei University. Currently, she is focusing on English study in preparation for her sophomore year abroad.
Her future goal is to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics. She continues to study hard every day with her future career in mind, and we can't take our eyes off of her any longer!
(Publication: December/January 2023 issue of "HOSEI" public relations magazine)
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