Mayumi Narita

Mayumi Narita was born on August 27, 1970, in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan. At the age of 13, she began using a wheelchair due to myelitis, and in 1994, she became quadriplegic following a traffic accident. Despite these challenges, Narita embarked on a remarkable career in para swimming.

Narita made her Paralympic debut at the 1996 Atlanta Games, where she quickly established herself as a formidable competitor, securing two gold medals, two silver, and one bronze. Her career progressed with exceptional achievements at subsequent Games. At the 2000 Sydney Paralympics, she earned six gold medals, setting five new world records. She continued her dominance at the 2004 Athens Paralympics, where she was the most successful athlete across all sports and nationalities, claiming seven gold medals and one bronze, alongside setting six world records and seven Paralympic records. Her extraordinary performance led the International Paralympic Committee to award her the Best Female Athlete award in 2005. She later returned to competition in 2015, participating in the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games before retiring a second time after the Tokyo Games.

Throughout her career, Narita accumulated a total of 15 Paralympic gold medals, 3 silver, and 2 bronze medals. She was widely known as ‘Queen of the Water’ and was a significant figure in promoting Paralympic sports. Beyond her athletic achievements, she served as vice chair of the Tokyo 2016 Athletes’ Commission and was a director of the organizing committee for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. Mayumi Narita passed away on September 5, 2025, at the age of 55, due to intrahepatic bile duct cancer.