Disclaimer: Blueseventy Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The blueSeventy Swim is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
Last weekend’s Mare Nostrum stop in Monaco was chock full of outstanding swims. But it’s the rising queen of in-season swimming Rikako Ikee who rose to the top.
Ikee is making a name for herself as a consistently fast competitor, particularly in-season when most of the world is swimming tired. In Monaco, Ikee became the 5th-fastest 100 butterflyer in history at 56.23. Ikee now leads the world ranks by a tenth over world record-holder Sarah Sjostrom, and continues to set herself up as a world-level medal contender for the 2019 World Championships and 2020 Olympics, which will take place in Ikee’s home country.
The next step for Ikee is proving she can drop time at her end-of-year taper meet. Last season in this event, she went 56.89 in January only to ultimately go that same exact time at Worlds semis before falling off in the final.
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It would be challenging 55 since she’s already been 56 several times.
It says 56 second barrier – Meaning breaking 56s, or sub 56.
Didn’t ikee go 56.23 at Nostrum?