With exactly six months to go until Beijing 2008 kicks off in a blaze of dragons, fireworks and ludicrously dressed dancers, today seems as appropriate a time as any to take a first survey of the more colourful Olympic stories that are already beginning to sneak out of the news wires on a daily basis.
Now taking part at such an age is impressive enough in itself – Hoketsu would become the oldest Japanese Olympian of all time, ahead of fellow equestrian Kikuko Inoue, who was 63 when she rode at Seoul in 1988, while the oldest ever Olympian, Swedish shooter Oscar Swahn, was only five years older when he won his sixth Olympic medal at Antwerp in 1920. But Hoketsu's achievement is even more noteworthy for the fact this will be the second time he has taken part in the Olympics. The first time was at Tokyo in 1964.
Hoketsu was 23 when he finished 40th in the showjumping event in Tokyo, and although the International Olympic Committee was unable to get back to us this afternoon to confirm, the potential 44-year break he will have taken between his first and second Olympic appearances would surely constitute some sort of record. He has since converted to the less physically demanding dressage, but where else in any sport can an athlete have competed at the highest level in their 20s, and then attained the same heights more than four decades later, without having done so during the interim?
To be fair, Hoketsu – who first started riding at the age of 12 – never stopped riding during his Olympic break, winning a host of national championships and actually qualifying for the 1988 Seoul Olympics, before having to surrender his entry following quarantine issues with his horse. He had also been named as a reserve for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, but was never called upon.
This year, on the other hand, he may even wind up competing twice. As well as being on course to make the team dressage event, Hoketsu will stand a good chance of qualifying for the individual competitions if he can maintain his current ranking as world No92 in the sport.
Nor will Hoketsu, who abandoned his job as a company director in 2003 to move to Germany for full-time training, be content with simply earning a starting place. “If I make it to Beijing, I will not be satisfied with merely participating in the Olympics,” insisted Hoketsu to the Asahi Shimbun. “I want to finish in the highest ranking possible.”
Will Hoketsu finish in the medal positions? Almost certainly not, but if he could even outdo his achievement 44 years ago, that really would be something worth contacting the IOC about.