Maiko Fujino
Maiko Fujino is a Japanese swimmer, who specialized in long-distance freestyle and individual medley events. She represented her nation Japan at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and has won a career total of six medals in a major international competition, spanning the Pan Pacific Championships and three editions of the Asian Games. Fujino was also a student at Takushoku University in Tokyo.
Fujino made her own swimming history at the 2002 [Pan Pacific Swimming Championships] in Yokohama, quickly claiming the bronze medal in the 400 m individual medley with a time of 4:45.79. The following year, Fujino picked up two more medals in the same stroke at the 2003 Summer Universiade in Daegu, South Korea, posting respective marks of 2:17.41 and 4:48.44.
Five years later, Fujino competed in two swimming events at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Leading up to the Games, she cleared FINA A-standard entry times of 8:34.17 and 4:40.14 at the Olympic trials in Tokyo to earn an outright selection on the Japanese team. On the first day of the Games, Fujino posted her personal best of 4:37.35 in the preliminary heats of the Swimming at the [2008 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metre individual medley|400 m individual medley], but missed out the final by less than 0.21 of a second in eleventh place. In her second event, Swimming at the 2008 [Summer Olympics – Women's 800 metre freestyle|800 m freestyle], Fujino challenged seven other swimmers on the third heat, including former Olympic champion Camelia Potec of Romania, 14-year-old Li Xuanxu of China, and top medal favorite Katie Hoff of the United States. She raced to sixth place by five seconds behind Venezuela's Andreina Pinto in 8:35.60. For the second time, Fujino failed to advance to the top 8 final, placing herself in twenty-first overall on the evening prelims.
Fujino also became the first female Japanese swimmer to dip under 4:30 barrier in the 400 m individual medley, smashing a Japanese record and her own tech suit best of 4:29.77 at the 2009 Japan Open in Tokyo.