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 | Monday, April 24, 2000, updated at 16:29(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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Chinese Swim Team under Pressure to Reach GoalChinese swimming heads reiterated that a crystal clear self-image is the priority for the Sydney Olympics, but a tough Olympic mission is in front of the stagnant Chinese team.They said the recent world record breaking tide slashed in swimming competitions leading up to the Olympics suggests that the Olympic competition in the pool will be at its highest level ever and may put unprecedented pressure on China's young team. But they emphasized that no matter how hard the mission is, no drug offenses are allowed among the once-glorious Chinese team. "We just want a clean event," Zhang Qiuping, vice-director of the Chinese Swimming Association (CSA) said. The Chinese camp is working to get at least one gold in Sydney, the lightest task for China since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Reminiscing about the 15 new records set in the four-day World Short Course Championships last month in Greece, Zhang thinks it will be very difficult to accomplish the task, however, and it is the biggest challenge for China this time, out of the four Olympic games they have participated in. "The championship is simply more than we had bargained for," Zhang said of the tournament which ended on March 19. China won two gold medals by Chen Hua, defending champion of the women's 800m freestyle and rising star Yang Yu in the women's 200m freestyle. But their western rivals stole all the limelight. Sweden swimmers contributed six world records to continue their exceptional feat at the European Championships at Istanbul where they unexpectedly top the table with an overwhelming 10 gold medals. The US, though they're without their strongest roster, were the winningest thanks to the glorious Neil Walker, the best swimmer of the tournament who devoured four golds with five world records. "That is still not the world's best. You know, the US, Japan and Olympics hosts Australia leave their best at home," Zhang said. Japan sent a relatively unknown team, differentiating from the world record breaking squad in the last championships in Hong Kong. The ambitious Australia also hid their elites like Ian Thorpe and Michael Klim. "When the Olympics comes, you know how powerful they will be," said Zhang. In contrast, he said, Chinese swimmers were far from being a real Olympic medal contender, referring to the Asian Swimming Championships last month. China, fielding their best, swam under Olympic A Standards on a few events though swept 22 gold out of a total 32 in a rather prosaic competition. "These gold medals mean nothing. There will be no place for them in Sydney if they swim like that," said Zhang. He said after the two lead-up events, the team has to work out a breakthrough point to accomplish the set goal. But that is by no means easy. China has lost its lead on women's short distance freestyle on which they won three gold medals in the last two Olympics. Other medal hopes like world record holders Chen Yan and Wu Yanyan are also far from their best. "If Chinese swimming was on the crest six years ago, now we are really on the trough," Zhang said.
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