Akio Usami

Akio Usami was born on 31 May 1943 in Yoshida, a town in the Nishikanbara district of Niigata Prefecture that is now part of the city of Tsubame. He was the third son among nine brothers and sisters. At junior high school he played basketball, and at Maki High School he played soft tennis.

He often said that his marathon career began on Mount Yahiko. When he climbed it with friends as a boy, his mother had told him it was a sacred mountain and that turning back would bring bad luck. When the others wanted to give up halfway he carried on to the summit, and he later said it taught him to finish whatever he started.

He only began athletics at Nihon University. In his first year he ran with a hobby club before joining the university's athletics team in his second year. He ran the Hakone Ekiden, the famous New Year university relay, three times, and in 1965 he won the ninth leg as Nihon University took the overall title.

After graduating, Usami joined the corporate team of the sewing machine maker Riccar and focused on the marathon, an event he had already begun racing as a student. He was chosen for three Olympic Games in a row, finishing ninth in the marathon at Mexico City in 1968, twelfth at Munich in 1972 and thirty second at Montreal in 1976.

His best years came in 1970 and 1971, when he won four international marathons in succession, including Fukuoka and Athens. At the 1970 Fukuoka International Marathon he ran 2 hours 10 minutes 37.8 seconds, beating the American Kenny Moore by nearly a minute. The time was a Japanese record and, at the time, the third fastest marathon in history. In 1974 he also won the marathon title at the British AAA Championships.

Alongside his running, Usami studied the science of sport. He took graduate studies in physical education at Nihon University and also studied in Cologne in Germany, combining theory with his own training and working on running form and the design of running shoes.

He lectured at Nihon University and then joined Tokai University's School of Physical Education, rising from associate professor to professor and becoming professor emeritus in 2009. He was a member of the development committee of the Japan Association of Athletics Federations, a director of the Japan Blind Marathon Association, chair of the Japan student triathlon federation and chairman of the non profit Sports Volunteer Association, helping to spread sport well beyond the marathon.

Akio Usami died of cancer on 26 October 2026, at the age of 83. Tokai University confirmed the date, and his death was reported on 28 October by Japanese newspapers including the Yomiuri Shimbun, Nikkan Sports and the Sankei Shimbun, as well as the athletics magazine Gekkan Rikujo.

His funeral was arranged for 4 November 2026 at the Yoyohata funeral hall in Shibuya, Tokyo, with his eldest son, Hiroki, as chief mourner.

Usami came late to running yet became one of the leading marathoners of his era, holding the Japanese record and running in three Olympic marathons. As a teacher and researcher at Tokai University and through his work with blind runners, triathletes and sports volunteers, he spent the rest of his life helping others take part in sport. In 2021, more than half a century after his first Olympics, he carried the Olympic torch in his home prefecture of Niigata ahead of the Tokyo Games.