is a Japanese competitive

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

. She is the national record holder in the 50-meter freestyle and the 100-meter butterfly, and the

junior world record Junior or Juniors may refer to: Aircraft * Ekolot JK-05L Junior, a Polish ultralight aircraft * PZL-112 Junior, a Polish training aircraft * SZD-51 Junior, a Polish-made training and club glider Arts and entertainment Characters * Bowser Jr ...

holder in the 50-meter freestyle and 50-meter butterfly long-course events, and the 50- and 100-meter butterfly, and 100-meter individual medley in short course. At the

2018 Asian Games The 2018 Asian Games ( or ''Asian Games 2018''), officially known as the 18th Asian Games (), and also known as Jakarta-Palembang 2018 or Indonesia 2018, were a Asia, continental multi-sport event that was held from 18 August to 2 September 201 ...

, Ikee won six gold and two silver medals, also becoming the first female athlete to win the Most Valuable Player award at the Asian Games.

2014

At 14 years of age competing at the 2014 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships held in August with pool swimming contested at Kihei Aquatic Center in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

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, Ikee won the bronze medal in the 100 metre butterfly, a silver medal in the 4×100 metre medley relay, and bronze medals in the 4×100 metre freestyle relay and the 4×200 metre freestyle relay.Hy-Tek (31 August 2014)
"Meet Results: 2014 Jr Pan Pacific Swimming Championships"
''swmeets.com''. Retrieved 31 October 2022.

2015

Ikee won the gold medals in the 50 and 100 meter butterfly events at the 2015 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships in Singapore, breaking the Championships record in each. She also won the silver medal in the 50 meter freestyle and finished 4th in the 100 meter freestyle. Ikee swam at the

2015 World Aquatics Championships The 16th FINA World Aquatics Championships, FINA World Championships (), also Aquatics 2015, were held in Kazan, Russia from 24 July to 9 August 2015. Russia hosted this event for the first time. The number of participating national teams (190), ...

. She finished 19th in the 50 meter butterfly and missed qualification for the semifinals by 0.17 s. In the 4 × 200 meter freestyle relay Ikee and her teammates reached the final where they finished in 7th place. At the 2015 World Cup leg in Tokyo, Ikee broke the senior Japanese record in the 100-meter butterfly with a time of 57.56, and the junior world record in the 50-meter butterfly in 26.17 (both

long course An Olympic-size swimming pool is a swimming pool which conforms to the regulations for length, breadth, and depth made by World Aquatics (formerly FINA) for swimming at the Summer Olympics and the swimming events at the World Aquatics Champion ...

). She won the gold medal in both events, as well as in the 100-meter freestyle.

2016

At the Kitajima Cup in Tokyo in January 2016, Ikee broke the national record in the 100-meter freestyle, swimming 53.99. This record was broken in April by Miki Uchida. In February, she broke the national record in the 50-meter freestyle with a time of 24.74 at the Konami Open held at the Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center. This also broke the world junior record.

2016 Summer Olympics

At the Olympic trials in Tokyo in April, Ikee slightly improved her national record in the 100 m butterfly to 57.55. Ikee qualified to swim in four individual events (50 m freestyle, 100 m freestyle, 200 m freestyle, and 100 m butterfly) and three relay events (4 × 100 m freestyle relay, 4 × 200 m freestyle relay, and 4 × 100 m medley relay) at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

in Rio de Janeiro. In the heats of the 100 m butterfly, she broke her national record with a time of 57.27. In the semifinals she further improved this to 57.05, and in the final again, finishing 6th in 56.86. She finished 21st in the 200 m freestyle.

2018

2018 Asian Games

At the

in Indonesia, Ikee became the first swimmer to win six gold medals at a single Asian Games. She also won two silvers. After returning to Japan, Ikee learned that she had won the Most Valuable Player award for the tournament, the first for a female athlete at the Games. She then returned to Indonesia to collect the trophy and prize money.

2019

Leukemia

Ikee felt ill during a three-week training camp in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

early February, and left early to return to Japan to be examined by medical staff. On 12 February, Ikee posted a message on Twitter, announcing that she has been diagnosed with

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

2021

Tokyo Olympics Qualifier

Two years after her Leukemia diagnosis, Ikee qualified for the 4x100 medley relay in the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

in Tokyo by winning the 100-meter butterfly event in the Japanese Olympic trials with a time of 57.77 seconds. She helped the team reach the finals of the 4x100 medley relay.

References

External links

* * * *
Rikako Ikee
at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ikee, Rikako 2000 births Living people Japanese female butterfly swimmers Japanese female freestyle swimmers Olympic swimmers for Japan Swimmers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2024 Summer Olympics Medalists at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) Swimmers at the 2018 Asian Games Swimmers at the 2022 Asian Games Asian Games medalists in swimming Asian Games gold medalists for Japan Asian Games silver medalists for Japan Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games Swimmers from Tokyo 21st-century Japanese sportswomen