``I can't give up yet. I want them to leave it to me for the summer



,'' said Daiya Seto, feeling relieved of his nervousness after securing a ticket to his third Olympics. The 29-year-old, who moved to Australia in search of further growth and entered the Olympic year with the theme of "challenge," showed his competitive strength at the very end.


(Sports News Department Reporter Shohei Matsuyama)

[Full results from day 7] Daiya Seto, 200m individual medley for third consecutive Olympics

January.



Seto, who started the race in his hometown of Saitama Prefecture, described his goal this year as a "challenge."

"I value the word 'challenge' the most in everything. It's perfect for this year."

Rio de Janeiro Olympics bronze medalist Seto and gold medalist Kosuke Hagino

Seto has accumulated many accomplishments, including winning a bronze medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. The turning point was last year's World Championships held in Fukuoka.

July 2023 World Championship

Although he won the bronze medal in the men's 400m individual medley, he lost a huge margin of nearly 7 seconds to the young French athlete Leon Marchand, who had won the gold medal.He was shocked, saying, ``I wasn't swimming or feeling well.''

Last fall, I moved to Australia and began receiving coaching from coach Michael Ball, who along with Rikako Ikee coaches many talented athletes. The reason is…

``I wanted to go to an environment where I could concentrate and practice, but also feel like I did everything at the end.''

``I was able to simply concentrate on swimming,'' he said, enduring the rigorous training.In terms of technique, he improved his swimming one by one while receiving detailed instructions such as how to breathe in the butterfly and how to put his hands in the backstroke. went.

As he approaches the age of 30, Seto has taken on new challenges without setting any limits.

"I want to surpass my previous best record at the Olympics. I want to try different things, take on new challenges, and surpass myself."

In recent years, young and promising players such as 18-year-old Tomoyuki Matsushita and 20-year-old Hayao Ogata have appeared one after another in the men's individual medley.

Seto faced the selection event with a lot of motivation.

``I'm really happy that we have such a strong team, but I can't afford to lose.I want to have people following my back, and continue to be someone who says, ``If I beat Seto, I can get a medal.''I will do everything I can until I pass the baton to the younger players. Fight on the front lines of the world.”

The first event was the men's 400m individual medley.

Tomoyuki Matsushita selected for national team in 400m individual medley

Although he was a favorite in this event, he lost to Matsushita and came in second place, and was unable to break the standard record and was not selected for the national team.

However, Seto quickly changed his mind and said, ``I'll do what I can one step at a time.''

Next, I decided to take part in the 200m butterfly, which I had not practiced for, before taking part in the 200m individual medley, which I was aiming for a job offer. He explained the reason as follows.

Participated in the 200m butterfly

``Normally, I would build up my physical strength, but I felt like I wanted to race, and in my career, I instinctively felt, ``I should probably swim.''

Although she came in third place in the finals in the 200m butterfly, she made adjustments to the butterfly, which she said didn't feel right, and gathered up her sense of practice before going into the final event, the 200m individual medley.

After holding on for third place in the first butterfly, she quickly took the lead in the breaststroke, which gave her a chance to earn a spot on the Paris Olympics team.

Selected to be on the Olympic team (Tomoyuki Matsushita on the right)

After the race, Seto looked back on the crucial race that went according to plan.

``I've been to such tight races in the past, so rather than thinking, ``What should I do?'' I felt like ``Here I am again.'' I had a sense of nervousness before the race, and I enjoyed it. I have a lot to draw from. I was able to run a perfect race within what I could do this time.”

Meanwhile, we were already looking ahead to this summer.

"I'm not swimming the way I want to, and I haven't been able to set the lap times yet. However, the competition is coming. I want to do everything I can in the next few months to get the best performance."

After the race, Rikako Ikee and joy

Aiming to win a medal at the Paris Olympics and improve his personal best.



The 29-year-old with a proven track record continues to take on challenges.