Ryosuke Irie
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Ryosuke Irie (入江 陵介, Irie Ryōsuke, born 24 January 1990) OLY is a retired[2] Japanese competitive swimmer who competes in backstroke events. He is a Kindai University student in Osaka.
He won a silver medal in the 200 metre backstroke and a bronze in the 100 metre backstroke at the 2012 Summer Olympics, along with a silver in the men's 4 × 100 m medley with the Japanese team.[3][4] His beautiful backstroke technique has often been compared to Roland Matthes, who was described as the Rolls-Royce of swimming.[5]
Biography
[edit]He was born in Osaka and started his actual swimming career in his junior high school years. When he was in the second grade, future Olympic backstroke medalist Ryosuke Irie hated swimming. He loathed it so much that his mother had to carry a crying Irie to his coach at poolside.
When he first joined, Irie was one of the slowest swimmers in the elite Itoman Toshin swimming school in Suminoe Ward, Osaka. He joined the school because his older brother, Shinpei Irie, who had won numerous national-level competitions, was in the program. He reluctantly continued swimming only because his mother, Kumiko, promised she would ask the coach if he could quit a year after he joined the school.
Irie initially trained in freestyle, but began swimming the backstroke alone for long periods before and after practice. Backstroke was suitable for Irie because it did not require as much power as freestyle, and soon, Irie began winning national-level competitions and breaking junior high school records.
A year after Irie began training at the elite school, his mother had forgotten her promise to ask the coach if her son could quit.[6]
In 2005 he won the national high school championships in 200 meter backstroke when he was a first year grade student. He made new high school student record in Japanese national championships in April 2006. He narrowly missed the entry for FINA World Aquatics Championships of that year. He won a gold medal with the time of 1:58.85 in 200 m backstroke at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar.[7]
In August 2007, he attended his first world swimming competition, International Swim Meet 2007 held in Chiba, Japan. On August 22, he beat the previous high school record in 100 m backstroke with the time of 54.07 s. The next day, he beat another high school record in 200 m backstroke with the time of 1:57.03.
World record controversy
[edit]He swam the 200 meter backstroke in a Japanese record time of 1:52.86 on May 10, 2009, in a Japan-Australia swimming contest held in Canberra. Even though the time was lower than the world record, his time was rejected by FINA,[8] swimming's international governing body, because he did not wear an approved suit. Japan's swimming federation did approve the record, however, along with several others in which Japanese swimmers wore unapproved suits that were later ruled to yield an unfair advantage. Irie's time would have sliced a massive 1.08 seconds off the 200 meter record set by American Ryan Lochte when he won gold at the Beijing Olympics. The high-tech swimsuit, which is made by Japanese sport wear manufacture Descente (who owns Arena), was not approved by FINA in a meeting held on May 20, 2009, and was called for modifications along with other 136 models.[9] In the same meet, he swam a time of 52.56, which was only 0.02 seconds off the world record of Aaron Peirsol, set at the Olympic Games the previous year. With an approved suit, Irie won the silver, Lochte the bronze and Aaron Peirsol won gold in the 200m backstroke at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships in Rome later that year. Irie's time of 1:52.51 was a new Asian record, and the second fastest in the history of 200m backstroke.
Swimming technique
[edit]Ryosuke Irie is credited with having the most graceful and effective backstroke technique in the world.[10] Before, he did a lot of backstroke training with a water bottle on his head (Invented by East Carolina University Swim and Dive, 1990's), to ensure that his head is very steady, and to maintain the smoothness of his stroke. Irie has paid a lot of attention to achieving a perfect technique from a young age, which is why despite his small size in comparison to other world-class backstrokers, he can still attain great results. While he did not medal at the Rio 2016 games [11] his training continues as he hopes to win gold in his home country at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Personal bests and records
[edit]- Long course (50 m)
Event | Time |
|
Date | Meet | Location | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
50 m backstroke | 24.79 | (h) | 1 Aug 2009 | World Championships | Rome, Italy | |
100 m backstroke | 52.24 | NR | 5 Sep 2009 | Japan University Championships | Kumamoto, Japan | [12] |
200 m backstroke | 1:52.51 | AS, NR | 31 Jul 2009 | World Championships | Rome, Italy |
- Short course (25 m)
Event | Time |
|
Date | Meet | Location | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
50 m backstroke | 24.32 | (h) | 17 Dec 2010 | World SC Championships | Dubai, United Arab Emirates | |
100 m backstroke | 49.91 | 25 Oct 2020 | 2020 International Swimming League Match 3 | Budapest, Hungary | ||
200 m backstroke | 1:49.78 | AS, NR | 26 Feb 2011 | Japanese SC National Championships | Tokyo, Japan | [13] |
Records not set in finals: h – heat;
References
[edit]- ^ "Japanese Medalists in London 2012 Olympics". joc.or.jp. Japanese Olympic Committee. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
- ^ "Japan swimming legend and four-time Olympian Irie Ryosuke retires". Retrieved 3 April 2024.
- ^ "Ryosuke Irie - Swimming - Olympic Athlete | London 2012". Archived from the original on 3 January 2013. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
- ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Ryosuke Irie". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 2020-04-17. Retrieved 2019-01-19.
- ^ "SwimVortex: Ryosuke Irie Sets Textile Best (No 2 All-Time) Ahead of Xu High & Hagino's Seventh Medal". Archived from the original on 28 April 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
- ^ "Irie owes pool success to natural talent, mother". Asahi Shimbun. 11 July 2012. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
- ^ "Ryōsuke Irie | Pagelous". Archived from the original on 26 November 2014. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
- ^ "Archived copy". www.fina.org. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "AFP: Irie vows new swim world mark despite suit dispute". Archived from the original on 12 March 2011. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
- ^ http://athletestalk.com/2013/04/ryosuke-irie/
- ^ "Men's 100m Backstroke". Archived from the original on 26 August 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
- ^ "Japan University Championships: Ryosuke Irie Blasts 100 Back, Sets Asian Record". swimmingworldmagazine. 5 September 2009. Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
- ^ "Japanese Short Course National Championships: Daiya Seto, Ryosuke Irie, Kosuke Kitajima Set National Records". Swimming World Magazine. 26 February 2011. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 26 February 2011.
External links
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Ryosuke Irie at World Aquatics
- Ryosuke Irie at the International Swimming League (archived)
- Ryosuke Irie at Swimrankings.net
- Ryosuke Irie at Olympics.com
- Ryosuke Irie at Olympedia
- 1990 births
- Living people
- People from Tennōji, Osaka
- Sportspeople from Osaka
- Japanese male backstroke swimmers
- Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics
- Swimmers at the 2012 Summer Olympics
- Swimmers at the 2016 Summer Olympics
- Swimmers at the 2020 Summer Olympics
- Olympic swimmers for Japan
- Olympic silver medalists for Japan
- Olympic bronze medalists for Japan
- Olympic silver medalists in swimming
- Olympic bronze medalists in swimming
- Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics
- World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming
- Medalists at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m)
- Asian Games medalists in swimming
- Swimmers at the 2006 Asian Games
- Swimmers at the 2010 Asian Games
- Swimmers at the 2014 Asian Games
- Swimmers at the 2018 Asian Games
- Asian Games gold medalists for Japan
- Asian Games silver medalists for Japan
- Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games
- Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games
- Medalists at the 2014 Asian Games
- Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games
- Summer World University Games medalists in swimming
- FISU World University Games gold medalists for Japan
- FISU World University Games silver medalists for Japan
- Medalists at the 2009 Summer Universiade
- Medalists at the 2011 Summer Universiade
- 21st-century Japanese sportsmen
- Swimmers at the 2022 Asian Games