Four-time world champion Daiya Seto, who resigned as captain of Japan's swim team after an extramarital affair, has entered next month's Japan Open for his first competitive race in nearly five months, a source familiar with the plan said Friday.
The 26-year-old avoided a ban from competing at the postponed Tokyo Olympics but had been suspended through 2020 as punishment for an affair exposed by a gossip magazine. In September, he was photographed at a "love hotel" with a woman who was not his wife.
The reigning world champion will compete in the men's 200- and 400-meter individual medley as well at the 200 butterfly, in which he holds the national record, at the Feb. 4-7 meet at the newly built Tokyo Aquatics Center.
Seto won the 400 IM world title in 2013 and 2015 and claimed gold in both the 200 and 400 individual medleys at the 2019 world championships, which earned him a spot in the same events on Japan's swimming team for the Tokyo Games.
But in October, he was handed an ethics code violation punishment by the Japan Swimming Federation and barred from competitions and official training until the end of the year. He admitted to the infidelity and issued an apology.
In addition to resigning as captain for this summer's Olympics, Seto quit his image-rights agreement with the Japanese Olympic Committee and agreed to sever his ties with corporate sponsor All Nippon Airways Co. upon the airline's request.