Javelin star Kitaguchi Haruka, who won Japan’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in a women’s field event at Paris 2024, has embarked on a new journey towards even greater success.
Just over two years until the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, Kitaguchi announced on social media that she would be coached by three-time Olympic champion and men’s javelin world record holder, Jan Železný.
“After our training camp in South Africa, I’m excited to announce that I have officially started working with true legend, Jan Železný,” she wrote. “I am incredibly honoured to begin this new chapter with him. I am looking forward to absorbing everything I can – not just about technique, but also the elite mentality it takes to succeed.”
Kitaguchi is aiming to return to form and fitness in 2026, having failed to make her home world championships final last year in Tokyo after suffering an elbow injury earlier in the season.
Who is Jan Železny?
Born in 1966, Železný won three Olympic and three world championship golds representing the Czech Republic (now Czechia). His world record of 98.48m, set in 1996, remains unbroken after nearly 30 years.
After retiring as an athlete in 2006, he has built a successful career as a coach, training top athletes from Czechia, including two-time Olympic gold medallist and women’s world javelin record holder Barbora Špotakova, 2013 World Champion Vítězslav Veselý, and Tokyo 2020 silver medalist Jakub Vadlejch. He also coached India’s Neeraj Chopra, the gold medallist at Tokyo 2020 in 2021, and the 2023 world championships.
