The Japan Swimming Association recently announced the olympic participation list, the high-profile Ikee Rihanako will only participate in the relay event, the previously affected by the derailment of the Seto Dai will also compete in three events, Matsumoto Katsuyo will launch an attack on the men's 200m freestyle medal.
In 2019, it took almost a full year for Ikee to heal her illness, and she finally recovered from leukemia and returned to the field. Rihanko Ikee re-entered the race in August 2020, and in April this year, she performed well at the Japan Olympic Trials and successfully qualified for the relay team. At the Japan Trials in April, Ikee Rihanako won the women's 100-meter freestyle and 100-meter butterfly events, but her results were still a certain gap from before her illness, and coupled with the fact that Ikee's results did not meet the Olympic standard line set by the Japan Swimming Association, she finally did not get the individual participation rights in these two events, but she locked in the relay qualification.
In the Olympic lineup announced by the Japanese team, Rihanako Ikee will compete in the women's 4×100m freestyle relay with Natsumi Sakai, Chihiro Igarashi and Rika Omoto. Due to her lack of full recovery, Rihanko Ikee was not yet able to compete in the 200m freestyle, and she was not selected for the Japan 4×200m freestyle relay lineup, Chihiro Igarashi, Ritsu shirai, Aoi Masuda and Ikemoto.
In addition to Ikee Rihanako, another high-profile athlete on the Japanese team is Daiya Seto. Originally, Seto was also the most promising athlete in Japanese swimming to attack the Olympic gold medal, but he was exposed to cheating before, which had a great impact on his training. At the Tokyo Olympics, Seto Dai will also participate in the men's 200m medley, 400m medley and 200m butterfly, and in the 400m medley he has the greatest hope of winning gold, and he currently occupies the world number one this year with a time of 4:09.02. The closest to Seto Daiya was American Kariz, whose time was 4:09.09.
In other men's events, the Japanese team has a strong ability in the 200m freestyle and 200m breaststroke, and Katsuyo Matsumoto swam 1:44.65 in April, ranking third in the men's 200m freestyle. With Sun Yang banned from the Olympic Games, Matsumoto Katsuyo is already a strong contender for medals and even gold medals in the project. In the men's two breaststroke events, Shoma Sato and Ryu Takera will also play together, and in the 200m breaststroke, Shoma Sato has swum a time of 2:06.40 this year, and he is second only to Australia's Stulbright in the world. In the 200m medley, Kosuke Hagino will compete with Daiya Seto. Japan's veteran Iri Gangneung will participate in two backstroke events, and his competitiveness in the 100 backstrokes cannot be ignored.
In the women's event, the more competitive sport of the Japanese team is still medley, and Yui Ohashi will launch a medal attack on the medal in two medley events.