IFAF Asia
Meet the athlete: Akari Kitazaki
23 June 2022
18-years-old Japanese rusher Akari Kitazaki is like any teenager her age. She wants to go out with her friends. She wants to dress up with cute little outfits like those around her. She wants to feel fulfilled like her peers at her university. Instead, she is the one who does not take days off. She gets sunburned while practicing. Why all these? Because she has goals to become the better version of herself on the field every day. She is the personification of the word perseverance.
“Constant dripping wears ( away ) the stone,” she said. "I feel that I'm able to do something that I wasn't able to do before while practicing in different environments."
She will be one of the youngest athletes to play flag football at the World Games in Birmingham, Ala. She has been playing Flag football since she was in 3rd grade of elementary school. For her first international tournament, she is ready to face any challenge while finding her own way.
Kitazaki is known for her speed and blitz on defense. She is an everyday college student who likes to learn new things. Currently her two things are playing flag football and learning Korean language.
To become better you have to practice because winning is the result of practicing with everyone, as she would put it. That is why she does not take any day off. A process that can be hard, but Kitazaki enjoys every bit of it with the help of her coach who influences her point of view of the game.
Beside that, she enjoys the fact that football helps her meet irreplaceable friends.
She cannot ignore winning because it is part of the game, but it is not everything.
As I mentioned before, I lost a lot in elementary school, but I enjoyed playing the flag!
With those words and although Team Japan's goal is to win a medal, she wants her teammates to enjoy themselves.
"Play and enjoy our game until the end, not only because of the result of the competition, but also because we will have the opportunity to play with friends from all over the country who we would not normally have the chance to play with," she said.
