The mother's mantra that helped Ikee Rikako harness her fighting spirit
From Asian Games star, to leukaemia survivor and Tokyo 2020 Olympian, Ikee Rikako's mother Miyuki taught her daughter how to succeed through good times and bad.
Swimming
Ikee Rikako’s fighting spirit can be traced in part to the mindset her mother, Miyuki, instilled in her early on.
The single mother-of-three and teacher believed that, "Keeping strong minds doesn’t mean giving up on kind minds," according to the Asahi Shimbun. In short, she believed that being competitive should not come at the cost of being a decent person.
She also made a point of never comparing her children with their contemporaries, and focused on their character development rather than congratulating them for race results.
Those lessons helped the Japanese swimming prodigy to unbelievable success in her early career, competing at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, aged 16, before winning six gold medals and two silvers at the 2018 Asian Games.
That mantra was put to the ultimate test in early 2019, when Ikee was diagnosed with leukaemia.
“I just stood by her, cheered her up and encouraged her. If I cried, I would have made her suffer more,” Ikee Miyuki told the Asahi Shimbun. “I was trying to behave like an actress.
"Children need to believe in themselves to build strong minds without giving up."
Encouraged by her mother, Ikee refused to feel sorry for herself or speak negatively during her rehabilitation as she worked towards her goal of competing at Tokyo 2020.
Incredibly, she qualified for the Games in 2021 just eight months after returning to competition, and helped Japan reach the 4x100 medley relay final.
And her proud mother said that battling leukaemia "can be considered as an event to make one grow up and that such a way of living could be also a kind of strength".
Now she is also in the public eye, Ikee Miyuki has decided to give something back by writing a book containing her parenting knowledge and tips.
“It is important to continue to give positive comments, such as 'You can do it' to children and not to deny their dreams,” she continued.
"There are also more important things than becoming number one in sports or other fields."
More tough lessons on the road to Paris 2024
Those lessons have continued to help Ikee through the roller-coaster ride of emotions that is competitive swimming.
After the high of competing at her home Games, the Tokyo native fell agonisingly short of qualifying for the 2022 World Championships.
Despite winning the 100m freestyle and butterfly events, and finishing second in the 50m fly at the Japanese Nationals, she missed the qualifying times and was in tears afterwards, posting on Instagram, "It's a tough world. I can't go to the World Championships even though I met the qualifying time in the relay. I wanted to go, really badly, in the individual races and that may have worked against me.
"But I learned a lot from the races here and hope to build on this at the next one."
Moving on and focusing on the next task - the message had her mother's mark all over it.
Ikee’s focus now turns towards qualification for the 2023 World Aquatics Championships on home water in Fukuoka, ahead of Paris 2024 when she will still be only 24.
With her mother’s lessons in mind, and potentially her presence in the stands, expect her to battle right until the end once more.