The win put Kitajima into the elite group of men, who have doubled in back-to-back Olympics. U.S. star Michael Phelps has also accomplished the feat in Beijing, repeating in the 400 individual medley and 200 butterfly.


The only others were Germany's Roland Matthes (100-200 backstroke, 1968-72), Hungary's Tomas Darnyi (200-400 individual medley, 1988-92) and Russia's Alexander Popov (50-100 freestyle, 1992-96).