Reiko Nakamura and Hanae Ito occasionally chat with each other. But consciously or not, they almost never talk about swimming.
That doesn't give you the biggest surprise, because they are two of the top female backstroke swimmers competing in the same events.
In fact, they split the podium as Ito won the 100-meter race and Nakamura rallied to triumph in the 200 at last week's National Swimming Championships, which served as the Olympic trials for the Beijing Summer Games.