Austria’s Anna-Maria, Eirini and Vasiliki Alexandri start a new chapter with Nakajima Takako, former head coach of Japan’s national team during the last Olympic cycle. The 38-year-old takes over the position of long-time coach Albena Mladenova, who retired at the end of 2024.

After what a huge disappointment and missing out on a duet medal at the Olympic Games in Paris, the Alexandri sisters are now extremely motivated to start another Olympic cycle and to prepare for the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

Nakajima arrived in Vienna on February 28, and will start coaching full-time the Alexandri sisters in the course of the coming week.

 

“It was a very difficult situation,” the sisters told Austrian Swimming Federation. “We didn’t have a training plan and had to think up everything ourselves for five months. The training in the water, the strength on land. It was a difficult time mentally. We just tried to make the best of it, and thought long and hard about whether we should stop. In the end, we decided to carry on and started looking for a new coach, which wasn’t easy. Now we have a new coach in Takako and are fully motivated and looking forward to the future.”

After a few years coaching the junior and national ‘B’ teams, Nakajima was named head coach of Japan’s senior squad in November 2021. She coached the team through the Paris Olympic cycle, notably leading the women’s duet and mixed duet to gold at the 2023 World Championships. At the Paris Olympic Games, the Japanese squad ranked fifth in team and eighth in duet.

Nakajima was a member of the Japanese national squad from 2004 to 2007, and was recognized for her strengths as a flier. A reserve to the 2004 Olympic team, she went on to win four medals across the 2005 and 2007 FINA World Championships. At the 2006 Asian Games, she added a team silver to her collection.

At their last outing at the Paris Games, Anna-Maria and Eirini Alexandri placed fourth in duet. Vasiliki Alexandri wrapped up her season a bit earlier at the Belgrade European Championships, where she won two gold medals in solo. Nakajima and the Alexandri triplets will now prepare together for this summer’s European and World Championships.

“She believes in us and has big goals, just like us,” the sisters added. “The language will certainly not be a problem. Not with English anyway and we work a lot with body language in our sport. Takako is also doing an intensive German course. It won’t be easy, but it will work.”

ARTICLE BY CHRISTINA MARMET

Photo: OSV/Walter Bär  

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