In the early morning of August 3, Beijing time, in the men's 200-meter individual medley final of the Paris Olympics, Wang Shun, a 30-year-old veteran who represented the Chinese team, swam a time of 1:56.00 to win the third place, standing on the podium for two consecutive Olympic Games.
Despite the failure to defend his title, it is time to pay tribute to the oldest member of the Chinese swimming team, who has competed in four Olympic Games and seven World Championships, and Wang Shun has no regrets, and he is the only Asian athlete to win a gold medal in the event since it entered the Olympic Games in 1968. The Paris Olympics is by no means the end of Wang Shun's career, he has said before that everyone will definitely see him in the pool of the 2025 Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao National Games.
Wang Shun only competed in the men's 200m individual medley in this Olympic Games, and he swam a time of 1:58.09 in the preliminaries, ranking third in the group and sixth overall, and successfully advanced to the semifinals. Next, Wang Shun won the fourth place in the semifinals, with a score of 1:56.54, which was a significant improvement from the results in the preliminaries, and successfully advanced to the final. However, in the semi-finals, the results and form of the world's top players such as the host player Marchand, United States's Foster, and United Kingdom's Scott looked very good, and it was destined that Wang Shun would encounter extremely difficult and difficult challenges if he wanted to defend his title in the final.
In the final, Wang Shun was the first to turn in the butterfly stroke of the first 50 meters, and he was overtaken by the young France talent Marchand in the backstroke and breaststroke, but he did not give up the chase, always kept his position in the medal circle, and touched the wall for the third time to win a very valuable bronze medal.
Three years ago at the Tokyo Olympics, Wang Shun won the men's 200-meter individual medley final with a time of 1:55.00, which brought great surprises to the Chinese swimming team and swimming fans. In the ensuing National Games, he won the championship without any suspense, and also won the gold medal in the men's 200-meter freestyle final.
But after all, as he gets older, Wang Shun's physical fitness will inevitably decline. Two consecutive World Championships, Wang Shun's results are not ideal, in Budapest and Fukuoka has no achievements, for a time many people thought that he may not swim anymore, can be famous, after all, in the field of 200 meters individual medley, he should have won almost all the honors, from the second half of 2011 in the national championships Wang Shun dominated the men's individual medley field for more than ten years invincible, is already a legend.
However, everyone was wrong and underestimated the veteran's heart as a champion. At the opening ceremony of the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, Wang Shun, as an athlete from Zhejiang, appeared at the opening ceremony and lit the Asian Games flame with the digital virtual person. Sure enough, in the men's 200m individual medley final at the Hangzhou Asian Games, Wang Shun swam a staggering time of 1:54.62, setting a new Asian record, which is not far from the world record held by United States star Lochte for 12 years (1:54.00). From the World Championships in Fukuoka at the end of July to the Asian Games in Hangzhou in September, in less than two months, the veteran who is nearly 30 years old has improved his time from 1:57.97 by more than 3 seconds.
This should be Wang's last Olympics, but it will never be the end of his career. He told a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily that he will definitely appear on the field of the 15th National Games in 2025, the Olympic stadium will win glory for the country, and the National Games stadium will add color to his hometown. Wang Shun is a role model for young people to learn from and the pride of the Chinese swimming team.
Text/Beiqing Sports Liu Ailin