Anonymous sent: it's weird, but I always see art of olympic rin and haru and they're both on the same team and i don't get it? like rin went to train in for the australian team right? i've seen people say he was only training and then would come back and swim for the japanese team but why would the australian team train him if he was only gonna be like "thanks for training me lol bye!" i guess i always thought he'd just stay in australia and become a part of their team but i guess not?
well if i remember from the end of free he said the old coach would be willing to train him again but he went to swim at the Australian swim school in middle school to become a better swimmer. getting trained by that coach that was probably his best bet too since finding a new olympic training coach in japan would’ve been harder than an offer already on the table for you. cause i don’t think it was the australian team just the coach (i need to watch that ep again yike). i also believe (just how i feel) that he wasn’t thinking about swimming for australia. I think he has his dad’s dream in his heart and his own dream to stand on that stage w/ a medal in hand, something his dad can’t do. . so i think he wanted to rep his country and fufill his dream. but yeah it was confirmed that he’s swimming for japan with the offical art of their outfits for the year they went to the olympics (or were doing times for the olympics).
also you can have more than one person from the same team compete in the same event like a 100m freestyle. there could be 2 japan team members but they’re competing against each other (like this years olympics!)
Here’s the pic of their swimsuits too btw!
I hope it’s okay to add on here, but since I’m watching the 200m fly heats right now, I just figured I’d point out something I’ve been noticing so far. Quite a few of the athletes representing other countries are attending university in the US while training under big name US coaches. I honestly had no idea it was so common, but they keep being like “this swimmer attends Boise State” and then they’re swimming for Hungary or whatnot (I can’t actually remember the countries, but it’s been pointed out a few times already). Anyways, so I assume what Rin’s doing is pretty common practice for elite athletes? If he’s attending a university in Australia, he’s part of that team for local tournaments and such that the school’s team participates in. But when it comes to national competitions, he would be competing for Japan’s national team, as that’s where he’s a citizen of. Rin giving up his Japanese citizenship is extremely unrealistic, which he’d have to to compete for Australia (I don’t think Japan generally allows dual citizenship unless you have parents from each country, though I could be wrong). His university or whatnot gets to use him for their competitions, though, so it’s beneficial to both parties even with him swimming for Japan! I assume their program funding is based on the success of their athletes, so even if Rin’s Japanese, if he’s swimming and winning they’re getting better funding/support/recognition.
Yes, it’s extremely common for athletes to train in a different country than their home country. A really well-known example would be Yuzuru Hanyu, who trains in Toronto.
As for Rin swimming for the Australian national team — there’s in-show proof that isn’t part of his plan at all. They run into the national team in Free! ES ep. 12, and Rin barely seems interested in them. Which is really saying something, considering Australia has a very impressive team under its wing. Rin doesn’t tell Haruka he wants to swim with them later. In fact, he doesn’t even bring the Australian national team up again at all while he tells Haruka about his plans to train with his old coach.
The implication that Rin will return as soon as he’s had his ‘revenge’ is clearly there. If Rin had just told Haruka, “I’m going to give up my Japanese citizenship. We’ll never swim on the same team ever again.”, then Haruka’s reaction would’ve been very different from the one we see in the show.
While I’m at it, I also want to add this: Japan can only send its two best swimmers per event. This tells us Haruka & Rin are the fastest freestyle swimmers on the Japanese national team, when we see that shot of them competing together in Free! ES ep. 13. That’s pretty significant, IMO.
Personally, I believe that Rin will return to Japan quite quickly. I don’t think he will continue training in Australia during the entire length of his university years. I see him using his first year at university to make a name for himself at official events under his old coach’s name, and then returning to Japan to train with a Japanese coach as soon as he’s ready for the try-outs for the Japanese national team (which, incidentally, conveniently take place right after the end of the school year). In Yuruzu Hanyu’s case, the facilities & training opportunities in Toronto are simply way better than anything Japan has to offer. But, with regards to swimming… It’s kind of a sore spot. I get the feeling that it’d be pretty frowned upon for Rin to continue training outside of Japan once he’s made it to the team. There’s sponsors to consider, too. It’d just be really weird…
And also, guyysss we have to consider Rin and Haru aiming for the medley relay together too. In order to swim the medley relay all four of them have to train together in order to sync correctly. After three animations and two novels it feels really weird if Rin and Haru WOULDN’T try to get on the relay team together…
Exactly! :D
And considering they’re the two fastest freestyle sprinters, they’d probably be competing in the 4x100M freestyle relay together as well. Because, obviously, two relays are better than one. ;) HAVE I MENTIONED HOW MUCH I LOVE THE IDEA OF HARUKA BEING THE ANCHOR OF THE MEDLEY RELAY & RIN BEING THE ANCHOR OF THE 4x100M FREESTYLE TEAM??? BECAUSE I LOVE IT SO MUCH.
Although it’d all depend on the event schedule, I guess. I can easily see them doing 4-5 events, but it gets trickier if the events take place on the same day. Swimming more than 2 races per day would probably affect their results…
