Japanese swimming federation suspends Tomoru Honda for 21 months

Japan’s swimming federation suspended Tomoru Honda for 21 months after he was convicted of dangerous driving causing injury.

Honda, a 200-metre butterfly silver medallist at the Tokyo Olympics, was involved in a crash in Tokyo in November last year.

He was driving 88 to 108 kilometres per hour on a road with a 30-kilometre-per-hour limit when his car crossed into oncoming traffic and injured another driver.

A court gave him a one-year sentence, suspended for three years.

The suspension is expected to run until early August 2028, preventing him from competing in Japan’s Olympic selection event that April.

That makes it effectively impossible for him to compete at the Los Angeles Olympics in July 2028.

The federation said it reduced a two-year suspension by three months, taking into account Honda’s withdrawals from major competitions and the delay in deciding his punishment.

The ban takes effect when he receives formal notice, expected as early as November 6, and the federation said its decision will not be reversed.