This summer, Paris, which belongs to the Chinese swimming team, can be described as cloudy. Frequent doping tests, lapses in the lane, ill-intentioned doubts, hostility and prejudice ensued. On and off the field, it's really disturbing.
In the early morning of August 1, Beijing time, in the men's 100-meter freestyle final, 19-year-old Pan Zhanle reversed the championship and won the exciting first gold for the Chinese swimming team, making the audience look forward to the next day's competition.
At half past two in the morning on August 2, Zhang Yufei, a Chinese swimmer who has attracted much attention, dragged her body with an unhealed fever and the first day of her menstrual period, and pulled herself onto the starting platform of the women's 200-meter butterfly final of the Paris Olympics.
In the first 50 meters, she swam faster than the world record and was the first to turn. But in the third 50m, Zhang Yufei gradually showed fatigue, and finally slower than Mackintosh and Smith to win her third bronze medal of the tournament.
When she surfaced, Zhang Yufei pulled the corners of her mouth bitterly, and her voice in the post-race interview was already shaking, but the fans were still happy for her sick medal. In fact, she swam a good time of 2:05.09, which was behind her Olympic record set in Tokyo, but already surpassed her Asian Games gold medal of 2:05.57.
On August 1, local time, Chinese player Zhang Yufei at the award ceremony/Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Du Yu
It's just that in this sport, where Asians do not have an innate physical advantage, it is not so easy for Chinese swimmers to beat American and Australian athletes. This girl with congenital scoliosis, who was exposed to swimming pools at the age of 3 and trained professionally at the age of 5, won three Olympic trips, Rio, Tokyo, and finally broke the boat in Paris.
Playing with the body is Zhang Yufei's inward struggle, and the demons that were once buried in his heart have been repeatedly resolved and repeated several times in the process of overcoming obstacles along the way.
On the same day, the women's 4x200m freestyle relay combination composed of Yang Junxuan, Li Bingjie, Ge Chutong and Liu Yaxin also won bronze in the final.
The Chinese swimming team did not go smoothly all the way in Paris, but it was enough to prove their charm.
On August 1, local time, Chinese team players Yang Junxuan, Li Bingjie, Ge Chutong, and Liu Yaxin (from left to right) at the award ceremony/Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Du Yu
Broken halberds one after another
The bad omen first appeared on July 29, Beijing time, the second day of the Paris Olympics, which was a day that was marked to be ready to celebrate, but the entries of "Yu Fei does not cry" and "Qin Haiyang upset" have been on the hot list one after another.
These are the two aces of the Chinese swimming team, who have taken on the heavy responsibility of rushing for gold from the beginning of the pre-game preparations.
Zhang Yufei won 2 golds and 2 silvers in Tokyo, breaking the Olympic record in the women's 200m butterfly, and has since been called the "butterfly queen", but it was a difficult battle, she carried the haze of Rio, turned defeat into victory, and half-jokingly said after the game: "The first thought in my mind is that I can retire and never swim the 200m butterfly again." ”
On July 28, local time, the third runner-up Chinese player Zhang Yufei greeted the audience after the game/Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Peng
In the three years since the end of the Games, she has set the singles event in the women's 100m butterfly. During the 2023 World Championships, she even withdrew from the 200 butterfly competition. The implications behind this are self-explanatory. In addition to the psychological burden, Zhang Yufei was 26 years old when he walked to Paris, and he was gradually coming out of the golden period of his body.
But when she finally stood at the La Défense Arena in Paris, standing on the swimming lane she had anchored for a long time, her dream of her own Olympic gold medal in the 100 butterfly suddenly blurred in front of her eyes. In the end, Zhang Yufei lost to two United States players, Walsh and Huske, and unfortunately won the bronze.
Her younger brother, "Frog King" Qin Haiyang, suffered a more violent landslide. At the Fukuoka World Swimming Championships a year ago, Qin Haiyang won 4 gold medals alone, and also set a new world record of 2:05.48 in the men's 200-meter breaststroke.
On July 27, local time, Chinese player Qin Haiyang was photographed before the game/Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Peng
But in the men's 100-meter breaststroke final in Paris, Qin Haiyang missed the medal due to his abnormal performance in the second half of the race, and after that, his mentality began to collapse, and he had difficulty falling asleep, only sleeping for 4 or 5 hours at night, and he couldn't sleep during the day. "I also told myself to let go, everyone can say it, but from the perspective of athletes, it's not easy to really do it."
Three days later, in the semifinals of the men's 200m breaststroke, the nightmare reappeared, and the world record holder of the competition, Qin Haiyang, played even worse, only ranking tenth in the group, and did not even get a ticket to the final.
A cloudy question finally emerged in front of everyone: What happened to the Chinese swimming team?
A cloud looms over the swimming team
Let's go back to July 18, Yu Liang, nutritionist of the Chinese swimming national team, issued an article, saying that the Chinese swimming team went to France for 10 days, and the 31 athletes in the team were checked nearly 200 times by the international doping testing organization, "I came before I woke up at 6 o'clock in the morning, and I came during my lunch break at noon, and I had no choice but to rest on the sofa in the hotel lobby, and I had to stay up until the second half of the night after 9 o'clock in the evening." ”
According to another data, from May 5 to July 22 this year, Zhang Yufei underwent a total of 27 anti-doping tests during his personal preparations at home and at the Deauville training camp. Looking back at the whole of 2023, she underwent 43 domestic and international doping tests, including 27 out-of-competition and 16 in-competition tests.
On August 1, local time, Chinese player Zhang Yufei was in the game/Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xia Fangfang
Compared with other athletes in the same event, the high-frequency urine test received by the members of the Chinese swimming team is not normal, which has had a certain impact on the athletes' mental preparation and normal training. As early as when interviewed by the media during the preparation for the competition, Zhang Yufei revealed mixed feelings: "This session has the least amount of exercise, but it has the most ideas and worries, but the psychological burden will be a little heavier." ”
She admits that her emotional stability is really not very good. After the 100-meter butterfly preliminaries, which had a good result, Zhang Yufei was also full of thoughts: "I am very worried that foreign athletes are looking at me with colored glasses, and they are unwilling to compete with me or watch my competition, and I feel very aggrieved." ”
These "unconventional" things originated three months before the opening of the Paris Olympics, when some international media questioned that a number of Chinese swimmers were found positive for the doping trimetazidine in 2021 but were not punished. Even as early as the case, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) promptly investigated and communicated the results: a positive result of contamination of hotel food.
On July 9 this year, Switzerland's independent prosecutor Erik · Kodil released a preliminary report on an independent investigation that WADA showed no favoritism or mishandling in the investigation of Chinese swimmers who tested positive for pollution. Since then, the IOC has also expressed its full support for WADA's authoritative position in the field of anti-doping.
WADA responded to questions by saying there was no favoritism or mishandling in the investigation into the positive contamination of Chinese swimmers
However, this statement was not accepted by the United States, and the authorities still decided to implement long-arm jurisdiction.
A bipartisan panel in the House and Senate has continued to press WADA to increase its influence on the group. Meanwhile, in July, the Olympic Committee had to conduct intensive urine tests on the Chinese team, driven by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), the United States Swimming Association, some lawmakers and swimmers.
The Chinese swimming team can only abide by all arrangements that can prove their innocence, waiting for the moment when luck and strength meet again on a "difficult swimming lane".
Push forward
Under pressure, in the first early morning of August, the Chinese swimming team finally brought good news.
In the men's 100m freestyle final, Pan Zhanle, who ranked 13th in the preliminaries, made a splash, swimming 46.40 seconds, breaking his own world record and winning the first gold medal of the Chinese swimming team in Paris. In the post-match interview, Pan Zhanle did not show excessive joy and excitement, he said that he was not fighting alone, and that behind him was the powerful Chinese team: "Who said that we are not in good shape, let's see!" ”
20 years old is the age of youth and vigor, Pan Zhanle did not beat around the bush, directly expressed the resentment in his heart: "I (before) greeted Chalmers below, he ignored me at all, including Alexy of the United States team, when we trained, the coach was on the shore, and they rolled over and splashed directly on the coach, just feeling a little despised for us." ”
An interview with Pan Zhanle
After the incident, Australia's Chalmers posted a photo of shaking hands with Pan Zhanle on social media, and seemed to be responding to the matter with active gestures. However, everyone seems to understand the unhappiness in Pan Zhanle's heart, but the guns of the game have already sounded, and it is pointless to argue at this time, and only victory can break all doubts.
Chalmers posted a photo of him shaking hands with Pan Zhanle on his personal social media
Two hours before Pan Zhanle won the gold, Zhang Yufei also successfully advanced to the semifinals of the women's 200m butterfly.
After losing in the main event 100 butterflies, Zhang Yufei had to go all out in the secondary event 200 butterflies. But the sky is not beautiful, after the preliminary round in the morning, Zhang Yufei realized that she had a fever, and she struggled to swim in the semifinals in her weak legs, and once thought that she "couldn't enter the finals".
For her age, it may have been the "last 200 butterfly" of her Olympic career, and after the semi-finals, she smiled at herself: "Remember that feeling, and if you can, look at the podium again." ”
Ye Shiwen, who is on the same team, is two years older than Zhang Yufei, and went to the Olympics again after eight years, breaking into the women's 200-meter breaststroke final as a "veteran", and finally finished with the 6th place.
On July 31, local time, Chinese player Ye Shiwen was photographed before the game/Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Peng
Swimming is a sport that requires explosive power, and unlike shooters with a "light" temperament, swimmers tend to have more exposed emotional expressions. Zhang Yufei and Ye Shiwen have both had performance fluctuations due to psychological pressure before the competition, but at this stage of the Paris walk, the Chinese swimming team must let go of all attachment and pressure, focus on completing the competition in front of them, and enjoy the happiness brought by swimming competition.
Let the hour hand jump again, back to July 26, the first day of arriving at the Paris Olympic Village, the laughing "Nezha Girl" Zhang Yufei posted a social update: "In the (Olympic) Village, in my life, in your eyes. In the accompanying picture, she grinned with her trademark smile and spread her hands outward, showing off the Olympic rings above her head.
Zhang Yufei
Break through the shackles of water
Zhang Yufei has been in the pool for more than two decades, and it wasn't until the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo that she was truly known, winning two gold medals in 80 minutes for the first time in Olympic history. But there is never a shortage of talented girls in the swimming field. In the past, there are Luo Xuejuan, Ye Shiwen, and then there are Yu Zidi, Tang Qianting, and Zhang Yufei's story, which is a shining fragment in the Chinese pool, but the new protagonist is always on the way to come.
A single win or loss cannot define an athlete, let alone a team. Although in competitive sports, it seems naïve not to talk about success or failure and rankings. Otherwise, there would not be Zhang Boheng's sentence "The silver medal will not be taken out" - so poignant, a medal with different colors has an impact on the career of athletes that cannot be underestimated.
Zhang Boheng after the game
But is there only winning and losing on the field? It doesn't seem to be. This year is a hot year for the topic of swimming, and "The Heart of a Swimmer", based on the story of the first female swimmer to cross the English Channel, was released, and it received the most "tap water" with the least amount of films.
Trudy, who was suffering from hives, why did he take the initiative to break into the ocean after he survived? Is she completing self-redemption, or is she swimming for more "Trudy"?
Zhao Jing, a CCTV commentator who went out of the circle because of her "roar" when Pan Zhanle won the gold, is one of the legends of China's backstroke. On the eve of the final of the 2013 World Championships in Barcelona, Zhao Jing was almost unable to walk due to her menstrual period, and finally won the championship. When it was over, she was too tired to stand. It was precisely because Zhao Jing had such an experience that she gently comforted Zhang Yufei, who was also facing this situation.
Breaking through oneself and freeing oneself from the shackles of water is the eternal charm of swimming. It teaches a human being how to move forward in an unfit environment.
In the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, Zhang Yufei won 6 gold medals. But just as moving as winning the gold was the scene where she and Japan swimmer Rikako Ikee hugged each other and cried.
Zhang Yufei and Chijiang Lihuazi hugged each other and cried/Photo by Chao News reporter Ni Yanqiang
The latter is a post-00 talented girl in Japan's swimming world, but was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2019, and it took another 4 years to recover after treatment, winning the bronze medal in the 50m butterfly in Hangzhou, and the gold medalist in this event was Zhang Yufei.
At that moment, Zhang Yufei stood on the championship podium, but his eyes were already storing tears for Ikee Rikako, and they had agreed to meet again at this moment as early as the Tokyo Olympics. Now, another year later, they met again in Paris, but unfortunately, Ikee missed the final on the first day due to a defeat.
Chi Jiang's eyes were red, and he was still looking forward to winning back a city in the next four years. Zhang Yufei met Ikee Rikako outside the arena, and the two exchanged badges and pendants with each other, completing their encouragement to each other in small movements.
张雨霏写给池江璃花子的祝福：Be the best of yourself
The gold medal may be an important symbol of the competition and a professional sign, but these moments that have nothing to do with gold medals are the best testament to the Olympic spirit, a moment when the perseverance of individual human beings and the desire to overcome transcend borders and spread a tenacious contagion to the world.
The story in the pool is to be continued.