Ryuichi Shibata (柴田 隆一, Shibata Ryuichi, born December 14, 1983) is a Japanese swimmer, who specialized in butterfly events.[1][2] He represented his nation Japan at the 2008 Summer Olympics and has won a career total of three medals (one silver and two bronze) in a major international competition, spanning the Asian Games, Pan Pacific Championships, and Summer Universiade. Shibata also established both his personal best and Japanese techsuit-era record of 1:51.30 at the 2007 FINA World Cup in Singapore, until it was finally smashed by Hidemasa Sano at the Japan Swimming Open in 2010.[3] Shibata is a student at Nihon University in Tokyo.
Shibata competed for the Japanese squad in the men's 200 m butterfly at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Leading up to the Games, he cleared a FINA A-standard entry time of 1:55.57 at the Olympic Trials in Tokyo. Moreover, Shibata's surprising triumph dashed the hopes of two-time Olympic medalist Takashi Yamamoto, who finished behind him in third and thereby missed out on his fourth Olympic bid.[6][7] Despite entering the semifinals with an eleventh-seeded time of 1:55.82 from the evening prelims, Shibata tried to command his lead over all-time Olympian Michael Phelps at the final turn of the race, but faded down the stretch to hit the wall in seventh position and twelfth overall. Shibata's semifinal mark of 1:56.17 was not worthy enough to advance him further to the top 8 final.[8][9]
