{"id":422960,"date":"2020-03-17T15:09:31","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T22:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=422960"},"modified":"2020-03-17T15:51:02","modified_gmt":"2020-03-17T22:51:02","slug":"rikako-ikee-back-in-pool-for-first-time-in-406-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/rikako-ikee-back-in-pool-for-first-time-in-406-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Rikako Ikee Back in Pool For First Time in 406 Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

19-year-old Rikako Ikee\u00a0<\/strong>of Japan posted to Instagram on Tuesday that she was back in the pool for the first time in 406 days after a year-long battle with leukemia. She was discharged from the hospital in December and set a long-term goal of competing at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.<\/p>\n

She posted two photos of herself in the pool to Instagram. When roughly translated from Japanese to English, she wrote:<\/p>\n

“Hospital teacher’s permission finally came out and was able to enter the pool! It’s been a long time since I’ve been in the pool fo the first time in 406 days! I’m so happy that I can’t describe my words. I feel good and I’m happy. In Japan, new viruses are trending around the world, but I hope that the infection prevention and measures will be solid, and it will converge in 1 days.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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View this post on Instagram<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A post shared by Rikako Ikee (@ikee.rikako)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n