Former Olympic medalist Toshiaki Fushimi has tragically died following an accident in a keirin race Saturday. The Japanese track rider won a silver medal in the team sprint in Athens 2004, and recently returned to competition after a four year break.<\/p>\n
The 50 year old crashed during the Matsusaka Keirin in Matsusaka, Mie Prefecture, with The Independent reporting that he hit a safety barrier at the side of the track while trying to avoid a pileup of riders in front of him.<\/p>\n
He suffered fractures to his cervical vertebrae and skull and died at 10.15 Sunday morning as a result.<\/p>\n
Fushimi made his pro debut in the keirin in 1995, taking 619 races, including five G1 titles and the Keirin Grand Prix twice, in 2001 and 2007.<\/p>\n
He returned to racing this May.<\/p>\n
Japan Keirin Association chairman Hiroshi Kido pledged steps would be taken to try to avoid future accidents.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is truly heartbreaking that he lost his life in an accident during a race. We will reconfirm our safety measures and thoroughly ensure fair and safe races.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keirin is known for its high speed action due to the use of a motorized derny as a pacemaker.<\/p>\n
Fushimi was feted by former pro Malaysian rider Josiah Ng Onn Lam.<\/p>\n
\u201cToshiaki Fushimi wasn\u2019t just a competitor. He was one of the best Keirin riders Japan has ever produced,\u201d he wrote on social media. \u201cGrand Prix winner. Olympic Silver Medalist. A true professional on the track.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe raced against each other for years. That kind of rivalry builds a respect that doesn\u2019t fade.<\/p>\n
\u201cDevastated to hear he lost his life doing what he loved. My thoughts are with his family and the entire Keirin community in Japan. Rest in peace, champion.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-989300556.jpg”] Shane Stokes Updated July 20, 2026 07:10AM Former Olympic medalist Toshiaki Fushimi has tragically died following an accident in a keirin race Saturday. The Japanese track rider won a silver medal in the team sprint in Athens 2004, and recently returned to competition after a four year break. The 50 year old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2054544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2054544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2054544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2054544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2054544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}