was a Japanese swimmer who competed at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. 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. See also List of members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame References External links profile. databaseolympics.com 1917 births 1996 deaths People from Kōchi, Kōchi University of Tokyo alumni Olympic swimmers of Japan Swimmers at the 1932 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Japan Medalists at the 1932 Summer Olympics Japanese male freestyle swimmers Olympic gold medalists in swimming 20th-century Japanese people