Exactly a year ago, in the midst of the chaos about swimsuit issues before the Beijing Olympics, Kosuke Kitajima appeared in an arena wearing a T-shirt that read: "It's me that swims."
A year later, a 19-year-old Ryosuke Irie spoke his gloomy feelings for other national team members before the annual Japan Open long-course meet with, if not exactly the same, almost the same message as Kitajima's.
"I want people to see the swimmers, not the swimsuits," said Irie, whose personal-best 200-meter backstroke time (1 minute, 52.86 seconds, a time faster than the world record in the event) in the Japan-Australia meet in Canberra hasn't been labeled a world record because of the rubberlike Descente swimsuit he wore. The suit has not been approved by FINA.