She's in: IKEE Rikako helps Japan into 4x100m medley relay final
The local cancer survivor is through to her first final at Tokyo 2020 on the last day of swimming competition.
Swimming
IKEE Rikako might just be saving the best for last.
Ikee, who beat leukaemia to qualify for Tokyo 2020 eight months after returning to competition, reached her first final of these Olympic Games on Friday (30 July) in the women's 4x100-metre medley relay.
Swimming the butterfly, Ikee helped Japan into Sunday's final at Tokyo Aquatics Centre with the sixth best time overall of 3:57.17.
Ikee was a part of the host country's freestyle and mixed relay teams but had come up short in both.
On Friday, however, the inspirational 21-year-old set herself up for an exciting closing day to the Games swimming competition.
"As a team we haven’t been able to get to a final and as someone who’s only been doing relays at this meet, it was disappointing and eating me up," Ikee said exclusively to Olympics.com.
"So today I wanted to get it done. We were 10th on the entry list for this race but I thought if we could keep up with Italy in the next lane, I liked our chances.
"I wanted to catch up in the butterfly and I couldn’t, so that kind of annoyed me, but I think it’s massive that we are in a final at last."
The hometown favourite and team-mates KONISHI Anna, WATANABE Kanako and IGARASHI Chihiro came third in their heat.
Konishi changed over in second to 2015 world 200m champion Watanabe, who was overtaken by Italy's Arianna Castiglioni before Ikee jumped in.
Ikee kept Japan in third and Igarashi completed the job, touching the wall 1.78s behind heat winners Australia who were third-fastest overall.
Canada and the United States, one and two in the second heat, clocked the fastest times of 3:55.17 and 3:55.18 respectively.
After her third swim of the Games, Ikee admitted feeling "exhausted" but was equally excited for her first and last final of Tokyo 2020.
"I’m really feeling it," she said. "But the conditions are the same for everyone and there are swimmers competing in more races than I am. Now that I'm in, I'm going to milk myself to the last drop.
"For the final, the other teams will probably swap swimmers. But I hope we can still keep up and have a good race.
"We have to have the mindset of trying to take the race to everyone."