After Falling Short of Paris Olympics, Japan’s Ryosuke Irie Announces Retirement

After Falling In need of Paris Olympics, Japan’s Ryosuke Irie Proclaims Retirement

Japanese Olympic medalist Ryosuke Irie introduced his retirement from aggressive swimming on Wednesday, per week after he fell wanting qualifying for a fifth Olympics on the Paris Video games.

Irie posted his farewell on Instagram.

Irie in his farewell dates his profession to his nationwide staff bow in highschool in 2006, that means he’s spent greater than half his life representing his nation. Although he didn’t qualify at Japanese Trials final month, he expressed pleasure that his last meet got here in entrance of his dwelling nation followers.

“I can proudly say it was a cheerful swim life,” Irie wrote.

The backstroker has been one of many most interesting representatives of his nation over the past 20 years. He gained silver on the 2012 Olympics within the 200 backstroke. He added medley relay silver in London and bronze within the 100 again. He made the ultimate in each backstroke swims on the Rio Olympics in 2016, ending seventh within the 100 and eighth within the 200. He was seventh within the 200 and ninth within the 100 on the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

At his farewell press convention Wednesday in Tokyo, Irie was joined by a kind of different main lights, Worldwide Swimming Corridor of Famer Kosuke Kitajima. The breaststroker known as Irie, “a central determine of Japan’s nationwide swimming staff and a terrific teammate.”

Irie completed third in his signature occasion at Japanese Trials. His time of 1:58.37 was behind Hidekazu Takehara and Keita Sunama, each of whom hit Olympic A cuts.

“I’m grateful from the underside of my coronary heart to have had such a protracted profession,” Irie stated Wednesday. “I’d’ve preferred to retire in Paris however I swam my final race in Japan, in Tokyo, in entrance of lots of people. I couldn’t be happier.

“There will likely be no extra swimming for me. A part of me is completely happy and a part of me is unhappy about that.”

The 34-year-old has had a outstanding profession since his debut on the 2006 Asian Video games, when at age 16 he gained gold within the 200 again. He earned silver three years later on the well-known 2009 World Championships within the 200 again.

All instructed, Irie complemented his three Olympic medals with two silver and two bronze (three of them particular person) at World Championships; two bronze at Quick-Course Worlds; a gold, six silver sand a bronze on the Pan Pacific Championships; six gold and 14 complete Asian Video games medals; and 6 golds over two World College Video games.

He retires because the holder of Japanese information within the males’s 100 and 200 again, each relationship to the super-suited 2009 period. He helped the Japanese males’s medley relay set a nationwide document in ending sixth on the Tokyo Olympics, and he swam backstroke on the 400 combined medley document from 2018. Irie’s 200 again time of 1:52.51 stays the Asian document.