With the conclusion of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, we’ve seen a few retirement announcements, such as Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh.
But on the other end, we’ve also seen some elite swim veterans allude to hanging on for 3 more years until Paris 2024, a la Australia’s Cate Campbell.
Landing in the ‘not ready to call it quits yet’ camp is 31-year-old Japanese swimmer Ryosuke Irie. The Olympic icon told Asian media this week that he’s at least going to continue his career through the 2022 FINA World Championships, set to take place in May of next year in Fukuoka, Japan.
On his mentality following this year’s Games, Irie said, “I thought about retiring after the Tokyo Olympics. But there was still something missing in my heart.”
At the just-concluded 2020 Olympic Games, Irie finished 9th in the 100m backstroke and 7th in the 200 backstroke, with Tokyo representing the man’s 4th Olympic appearance.
Irie took home 3 medals at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, including the 200m back silver, 100m back bronze and medley relay silver. He more recently took 100m and 200 back silver at the 2018 Asian Games.
This week Irie also hinted at cutting his schedule down to just the 100m backstroke ongoing, focusing on both the individual event as well as trying to produce the best possible performance as the lead-off on Japan’s medley relay.
Irie owns the Japanese national record in the 100m back in a time of 52.24 from 2009, as well as the 200m back in a mark of 1:52.51 also from that year.