Hirokazu Ueyonabaru

Hirokazu Ueyonabaru was born on 22 May 1971 in Okinawa City, Okinawa Prefecture. Before his athletic career he worked for a construction company on the island. In 2000, at age 28, he was injured in a motorcycle crash while returning home. The accident damaged his cervical spine and left him with tetraplegia, including limited use of his forearms and hands.

During rehabilitation and vocational training he was introduced to wheelchair racing by Morisuke Gido, leader of the Okinawa wheelchair athletics club known as the Turtles. He later described the invitation as the moment that reopened a life he had feared was over. He made his competitive debut at the Ginowan Wheelchair Marathon in 2003 and quickly moved into national-level T52 racing.

Ueyonabaru specialised in the T52 wheelchair class in both marathon and track events. At the 2008 Beijing Paralympics he won silver in the men's marathon T52 and finished sixth in the 200 metres and 400 metres T52 and fourth in the 800 metres T52. He later won the Oita International Wheelchair Marathon T33/52 full marathon in 2008 and again in 2010, with a time of 1:50:22 in the latter race.

After Beijing he concentrated more on middle-distance track racing while remaining a multi-event Paralympian. At the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships in Christchurch he took silver in the 400 metres and 800 metres T52. He raced four events at London 2012, reached the 400 metres final, and continued through Rio 2016. At Tokyo 2020 (held in 2021) he won bronze in the 400 metres T52 in 59.95 seconds and bronze in the 1500 metres T52 in a personal-best 3:44.17.

He also won gold in the 800 metres T51/52 at the 2018 Asian Para Games in Jakarta and silver in the 400 metres T52 at the 2022 Asian Para Games in Hangzhou. At the 2024 World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe he placed fifth in the 400 metres T52 and fourth in the 1500 metres. He aimed for a fifth consecutive Paralympics in Paris but did not achieve that selection goal. Beyond racing he appeared for Okinawa Hurricanes in Japanese wheelchair rugby and, from 2025, served as president of the Okinawa Prefectural Para Athletics Association.

Ueyonabaru lived in Okinawa City, where he was later named an honorary citizen. He raced under the colours of SMBC Nikko Securities and remained closely tied to Okinawa's para-sports community, including the Turtles club that first brought him into the sport. After the Tokyo Paralympics he spoke publicly about wanting to repay supporters and still chasing a gold medal, and he continued training into his mid-fifties. In August 2025 Okinawa Prefecture appointed him to the preparation committee for the National Sports Festival and National Sports Festival for People with Disabilities as association president.

On the morning of 19 September 2026, at about 6:25 a.m., Ueyonabaru was training with others in racing wheelchairs on Prefectural Route 10 (Kaichu Doro) in Yonashiro, Uruma, Okinawa. A light commercial vehicle travelling behind struck his wheelchair on the left lane of the Heianza Kaichu Bridge section of the causeway. He was taken to hospital with brain contusion, lung contusion and a neck fracture and remained unconscious.

He died at about 5:09 p.m. on 26 September 2026 in a hospital in central Okinawa Island. Police cited suspected brain herniation as the cause of death and investigated the 65-year-old male driver for negligent driving resulting in death. The driver told investigators he had not seen the racing wheelchair; local para-sports officials noted that low morning sun on the eastbound causeway may have reduced visibility.

Ueyonabaru's path from a life-changing road crash to Paralympic medals made him a central figure in Okinawa para athletics. He received the Okinawa Prefectural People's Honor Award in 2008 after Beijing and again in 2021 after Tokyo, the first person twice honoured under that award. Okinawa City named him an honorary citizen in 2014, and the Ryukyu Shimpo Sports Honor Award recognised his Tokyo bronzes in 2021.

Across four Paralympic Games he showed that T52 athletes from Japan's southernmost prefecture could medal on both the marathon and the track. Younger racers and local clubs pointed to his longevity, his work as association president, and his willingness to keep racing into his fifties as a model of competitive resilience.