The run-up has been far from ideal, but Ikee Rikako is back on the stage that made her a household name.
This week in Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China, Ikee has returned to the Asian Games, the competition she was named MVP in five years ago in Jakarta.
Off her six victories there, the then 18-year-old became one of Japan’s biggest hopes for her home Olympic Games at Tokyo 2020.
The world of swimming knows the rest of the story. The February 2019 leukemia diagnosis. Her improbable qualification for the Tokyo Games two years later. The struggles since, including those at this summer’s World Aquatics Championships, where she reached just one individual final (50m butterfly) and left Fukuoka, Japan, far away from the podium.
Ahead of her second Asian Games, Ikee picked up the flu rampant in Japan and could barely put in the work she wanted. On Sunday (24 September), when she and her team-mates finished a distant second to the Chinese hosts in the 4x100m freestyle relay, Ikee had a stuffed nose, coughing occasionally to clear her lungs.
“Looking back on the race today, I don’t think it went very well,” Ikee, now 23, said on a night when China bossed the pool with seven golds from seven races.
“Given how I feel at the moment, I like to think I swam til the last drop. I have more races coming up but after swimming today, I feel like I have to be smart and manage what I have in the tank right now.
“I don’t think it’s going to do me any good by forcing myself out there. I need to think about how I feel first over the six days.”
- Asian Games 2023: Swimming preview, full schedule, how to watch live
- Asian Games 2023: Overall medal table - complete list
- World Aquatics Championships 2023: Ikee Rikako returns to world stage having beaten cancer
- World Aquatics Championships 2023: All final results and medals - complete list
- How to qualify for swimming at Paris 2024
Ikee Rikako - the fighter
Apart from the relays, Ikee is entered in the women's 50m and 100m for the free and the butterfly, the latter her signature stroke.
When asked how she would approach the rest of the meet given her condition, Ikee said she wasn’t considering withdrawing but at the same time, did not completely shut the door on the possibility either.
“I’m not thinking about pulling out. I’m here representing the country of Japan and withdrawing is not an option I want to consider,” she said.
“Having said that, I am getting a slight feeling it might be a decision not up to me. But as things stand, I’m going to do whatever my body allows me to do for each race.”
When Ikee initially returned to competition after beating cancer, she kept her prospects real, saying her goal was to return to form at Paris 2024 which would be her third Olympic Games.
Paris is now less than a year away. Battling a severe case of the nerves unlike anything she has ever experienced in her career, Ikee was never in medal contention at the worlds and judging by the way she feels and looks at the Hangzhou Games, she will have done well if she manages to win one gold medal.
However.
This is Ikee Rikako we’re talking about. She was staring death in the face at one point but didn’t flinch, clawing back to where she is now. She was never supposed to be anywhere near the Olympics in her hometown - but she was there, right in the middle of it.
So don’t count out Ikee just yet, even if she is sniffling and wheezing.
With the eyes of many on rising star Zhang Yufei, who wants to win seven races - one more than Ikee did in 2018, a battle between the former MVP and the potential new MVP could follow.
It doesn’t get much better than that.
“I feel like I’m at 30 per cent of what I can be,” Ikee said. “It’s a bummer that I’m not as fit as I can possibly be but I want to help out the team anyway I can until the last day of the meet.”