Brendan at Westminster College

A really cute video from Brendan's clinic at Westminster College earlier this year. He's adorable and goofy. Just one of the reasons we love him.

And a pretty harsh article on Kitajima...

Kitajima's reputation sinking fast

Kitajima scraped into Japan's team for the Pan Pacific championships

TOKYO, April 24 (Reuters) -- Double Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima's future has been thrown into doubt after his dismal showing at the Japanese national championships.

Kitajima avoided the humiliation of being axed from the Japanese team only after a dressing-down from his furious coach, who accused the 23-year-old of losing focus.

Victory in Sunday's 100m breaststroke in the last race of the meet could not paper over the cracks of a calamitous few days for the former golden boy of Japanese swimming.

Kitajima, the 100m and 200m gold medalist in Athens two years ago, slumped to fourth in the 200m and second in the 50m in Tokyo, provoking an angry response from coach Norimasa Hirai.

"He called me into his office and told me my career was in danger," Kitajima told reporters after scraping into Japan's team for August's Pan Pacific championships in Canada.

"I was hanging over the edge of a cliff. My confidence was gone but I had to win that 100m. Now I just have to push myself until the (2008) Olympics."

Hirai had called Kitajima's desire into question in a public remonstration following his failure to win the 50m.

"He doesn't have that killer look in his eye anymore," shrugged Hirai. "He needs to go out and make it happen -- not just expect it to."

His winning time of one minute 0.71 seconds in the 100m was more than a second outside his old world record as he was pushed hard by little-known Makoto Yamashita.

"It's wrong to feel relief but that's what it is," said Kitajima, whose technique has suffered after a punishing period of high altitude training in the U.S. last month.

"It shows that I still have some things to put right."

Such introspection was a far cry from Athens when, after twice beating fierce American rival Brendan Hansen, a pumped-up Kitajima boasted: "I kicked his butt."

The warning signs were there for Kitajima last year, though, after Hansen gained revenge by doing the 100-200m double at the world championships in Montreal.

After flopping in the 50m and 200m at Japan's national championships, a seventh straight 100m title was a hollow victory for Kitajima.

"I don't know what went wrong," said Kitajima. "I was on empty. It was tough but I'll be back and I'm sure I'll get the job done this summer."