Swimming star and leukemia survivor Rikako Ikee will compete in four events at next month's national championships with a goal of making the final of each. If she can also earn a ticket to the Tokyo Olympics, that will be a bonus.
Ikee announced Wednesday that she will enter the 50- and 100-meter races in both freestyle and butterfly -- she holds the national record in all four events -- for the Japan championships to be held April 3-10 at the newly opened Tokyo Aquatics Center.
The meet will also be serving as a domestic qualifier for this summer's Tokyo Olympics. The 50 butterfly is not an Olympic event, but in the other three, Ikee would have to finish among the top two and surpass the standard set by the Japan Swimming Federation to secure a spot.
"My goal is to make the final in every event I enter," said Ikee, who will be making her first appearance at the national championships in three years. "I've been thinking that all that matters is how confident I can be, and I've been going for broke in practice."
The 100 freestyle race will also determine the four members of the 4x100 freestyle relay squad. The federation standard for qualifying is 54.42 seconds, which is slower than for the individual race, making it the most accessible path to the Olympics for Ikee at this point.
For each event other than the 50 butterfly, there will be preliminary, semifinal and final races, meaning that Ikee is looking at a maximum of 11 races over the eight-day span.
Since returning last summer after undergoing treatment for leukemia, the Nihon University student has been posting faster and faster times, while also building up her stamina.
She has been reticent to state an intention to make it to the Tokyo Olympics, saying previously, "I am the one who knows my body best. More than the Olympics, I want to come back and have people see me start producing results."
At the very least, she will not veer from her current goal of medaling at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
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