Japan Para Swimmer Mayumi Narita Dies Aged 55

By Barrier Free Japan

September 6 2025

JAPAN – Japan’s leading para swimmer Mayumi Narita died on Friday at the age of 55, according to the Japanese Para Swimming Federation. Narita was recuperating from an illness. She has won 15 gold medals at the Paralympics, and 20 total.

Born on August 27, 1970, in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Narita began using a wheelchair in her early teens due to transverse myelitis, an inflammation of the spinal cord. Initially disinterested in swimming, she discovered the sport at age 23 through friends in a relay team.

Narita used a wheelchair after developing myelitis since the age of 13; in 1994. Additionally, she was involved in a traffic accident causing quadriplegia. In 1996, she represented Japan at the Paralympic Games in Atlanta, where she won two gold medals, two silver and one bronze. At the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney, she won six gold medals. She also set five world records at the Sydney Games.

Narita competed again at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, and was the Games’ most successful athlete, of any nationality and in any sport. She set six world records, seven Paralympic records, and won seven gold medals and one bronze medal.

In 2005, she was given the Best Female Athlete award by the International Paralympic Committee.

After the 2008 Beijing Paralympics—where she placed just outside the podium—Narita initially retired and shifted to advocacy and planning roles. She served as a board member of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics bid committee and later on the organizing committee.

Inspired by Tokyo’s successful bid, she made a remarkable return in 2015. She qualified for the Rio 2016 Paralympics, delivering respectable finishes across multiple events. She then competed at Tokyo 2020 (held in 2021), marking her sixth and final Paralympics at age 51. Despite no medals, she reached the final in the 50 m backstroke S5, finishing sixth with a time that surpassed her performance at Athens.

During prolonged training setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic, she adapted creatively—using a dumbbell-laden wheelchair to simulate muscle resistance on land.

Narita planned to remain closely connected to the sport at her home club, the Yokohama Sakura Swimming School.

According to The Mainichi Shimbun, Narita had been battling intrahepatic bile duct cancer at the time of her death.