Rikako Ikee Makes The Japanese Olympic Team For Paris 2024

2024 JAPANESE OLYMPIC TRIALS

It was a whirlwind of emotions on day two of the 2024 Japanese Olympic Trials.

5 years removed from her leukemia diagnosis, 23-year-old Rikako Ikee fought her way onto the Olympic roster for the 2024 Games in Paris.

Ikee competed in tonight’s final of the women’s 100m butterfly where she entered as the top-seeded swimmer, courtesy of her 57.03 semi-final showstopper.

This evening, Ikee was upstaged by 17-year-old Mizuki Hirai who grabbed the gold in a new lifetime best of 56.91. However, Ikee’s still-solid 57.30 showing for silver also dipped under the Japanese Swimming Federation (JASF)-mandated selection standard of 57.34 for both women to qualify for Paris.

Ikee’s 57.03 and 57.30 results represent her fastest since returning to competitive swimming after having battled leukemia for most of 2019. The sprinter and two-time Olympian is the Japanese record holder in this event with her best time of 56.08, which she recorded en route to gold at the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships.

She’s been training under Michael Bohl in Australia since the fall and the new environment is working for her. She’ll also be contesting the 50m and 100m freestyle events later at these Trials.

WOMEN’S 100 FLY – FINAL

  • Japanese National Record – 56.08 – Rikako Ikee, 2018
  • Asian Record – 55.62 – Zhang Yufei (CHN), 2020
  • World Record – 55.48 – Sarah Sjostrom (SWE), 2016
  • JASF QT – 57.34

GOLD – Mizuki Hirai, 56.91 *OLY Qualifying
SILVER – Rikako Ikee, 57.30 *OLY Qualifying
BRONZE – Shiho Matsumoto, 57.31 *New Student Record

Mizuki’s monster PB now ranks her 8th in the world this season at just 17 years of age. Ikee is 13th in the world at the moment.

2023-2024 LCM Women 100 Fly

GretchenUSA
WALSH
06/15
55.18 WR
2Torri
HUSKE
USA55.5206/16
3Regan
SMITH
USA55.6206/16
4Yufei
ZHANG
CHN55.8609/27
5Angelina
KOHLER
GER56.1102/11
6Emma
MCKEON
AUS56.4002/24
7 Margaret
MACNEIL
CAN56.4407/28
8MIZUKI
HIRAI
JPN56.4708/20
9Claire
CURZAN
USA56.6102/12
10Brianna
Throssell
AUS56.7704/20
11Alex
SHACKELL
USA56.7806/15
12Yiting
Yu
CHN56.8204/20
13Sarah
SJOESTROEM
SWE56.9210/15
14 Louise
HANSSON
SWE56.9307/27
15Rikako
IKEE
JPN57.0303/17
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Emma Eckean
7 months ago

Let’s go Ikee!

NoFastTwitch
7 months ago

How old is Shiho? I see she set a new “student record”.

Pan Fan
7 months ago

A very happy news. So happy for her 💐

bubbles
7 months ago

🎉🎉🎉

Anonymous
7 months ago

Congratulation!

Sapiens Ursus
7 months ago

Very inspiring, I really have no excuses for being a couch bum

Joel
7 months ago

Yes!!!!!!!

Swemmer
7 months ago

Everybody in the world is rooting for her to do well, so glad to see her finally begin to regain her 2018 form 🤩🤩🤩

About Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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