In April the Japanese Swimming Federation named their Olympic team, which included 34 athletes, the second largest contingent that the country has ever sent to an Olympic Games. In comparison the 2012 Olympic team included 29 team members.
After the trials the Japanese Head Coach Norimasa Hirai said in a press conference, “We’re starting with the national team from today. The swimmers will have to develop themselves more (until the Olympics) and we hope to have a positive result.”
As part of that development the majority of the Japanese Olympic squad will be competing at the Mare Nostrum Tour events in Canet and Barcelona. At both events the top Japanese swimmers will face many of the top European stars.
After the conclusion of the competition in Barcelona the team will head to Sierra Nevada, Spain for an altitude camp. After the camp finishes the team will head to São Paulo, Brazil where they will stay up until 10 days before the start of the games, which is when they will switch their base to Rio.
Some athletes who have only qualified to swim the relays in Rio will join the team in Brazil after completing their preparation in Japan.
The full Japanese Olympic team includes:
Men’s
Kosuke Hagino – 200 free, 200 IM, 400 IM, 800 fr relay, 400 med relay
Ryosuke Irie – 100 back, 200 back, 400 med relay
Junya Hasegawa – 100 back
Masaki Kaneko – 200 back
Yasuhiro Koseki – 200 breast, 400 med relay
Daiya Seto – 400 IM, 200 fly
Masato Sakai – 200 fly
Hiromasa Fujimori – 200 IM
Ippei Watanabe – 200 breast
Katsumi Nakamura – 400 fr relay
Shinri Shioura – 400 fr relay
Kenji Kobase – 400 fr relay
Junya Koga – 400 fr relay
Takeshi Matsuda – 800 fr relay
Naito Ehara – 800 fr relay
Yuki Kabori – 800 fr relay
Takurou Fujii – 400 med relay
Women’s
Kanako Watanabe – 100 breast, 200 breast, 400 med relay
Satomi Suzuki – 100 breast
Rie Kaneto – 200 breast
Rikako Ikee – 100 fly, 400 fr relay, 800 fr relay, 400 med relay
Natsumi Hoshi – 200 fly
Suzuka Hasegawa – 200 fly
Miho Teramura – 200 IM
Runa Imai – 200 IM
Miho Takahashi – 400 IM
Sakiko Shimizu – 400 IM
Miki Uchia – 400 fr relay
Misaki Yamaguchi – 400 fr relay
Yayoi Matsumoto – 400 fr relay
Chighiro Igarashi – 800 fr relay
Sachi Mochida – 800 fr relay
Aoki Tomomi – 800 fr relay
Sakai Natsumi – 400 med relay