Japanese swim star Seto suspended for rest of 2020 over affair
Tokyo, Oct 14 (efe-epa).- Japan’s world champion and Olympic swim star Daiya Seto has been suspended from official activities for the rest of the year as punishment for an extramarital affair.
The Japan Swimming Federation ban applied to Seto will not prevent him from participating in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, which will begin on July 23 next year, national broadcaster NHK reported Wednesday.
A Japanese weekly magazine revealed in September that 26-year-old Seto had visited a “love hotel” that month with a woman who was not his wife, an affair that the swimmer then admitted to and publicly apologized for.
Seto, who has two daughters with his wife, said through his management company at the time that his “careless act hurt my precious family and caused trouble and dismay for all my supporters, sponsoring companies and many other people.”
Days later, the swimmer resigned as captain of the Olympic swimming team and lost the support of one of his sponsors, All Nippon Airways.
After a meeting held on Tuesday, the Japan Swimming Federation decided to ban Seto from any sporting and official activity for the remainder of the year.
The sports body adopted the measure, saying that Seto had breached the sportsmanlike conduct standards set by the federation.
The swimmer had appeared Monday before the ethics committee of the sports organization to address the case.
Among the events that Seto is excluded from is the Japanese swimming championship in December.
Upon learning of the decision, Seto again apologized for his extramarital affair and the “irresponsible behavior” he displayed.
The swimmer is the reigning world champion in the men’s 200- and 400-meter individual medleys, holds the world records in the 200-meter butterfly and 400-meter individual medleys, and won bronze in the 400-meter individual medley in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. EFE-EPA
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