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Olympic Outlook: Chinese Swimming Fraught with Difficulty
Swimming is one of the hotly contested events in the Olympic Games. As the Olympic Games are about to open, the Chinese swimming team, which has an illustrious past, seems to be covered by dark clouds. Zhao Ge, the head coach of the Chinese swimming team, looked at the prospects of the Chinese swimming team in the Olympics. He said, the goal of the Chinese swimming team in the Olympic Games is to win one gold medal, which is very difficult.
1) Disturbed by " Stimulant Incident"
Wu Yanyan, a swimmer from Guangxi province, tested positive for a banned substance in the Olympic trials in Jinan has been publicized. The Chinese Swimming Association banned Wu Yanyan from competing for four years. The "stimulant incident" has cost the Chinese swimming team a key member in its quest for the gold and disturbed the whole swimming team. The team member's emotions and psychological state have been seriously affected.
When the Chinese swimming team first set the goal to win a gold medal in the Sydney Olympic Games, the key members on the team were Wu Yanyan, world record holder of the women's 200 individual medley and Chen Yan, world record holder of women's 400 individual medley. Now Wu Yanyan's absence costs the Chinese swimming team a mainstay.
2) Veterans Not In Peak Condition
Of the present Chinese swimming team, Liu Liyan, Chen Yan, Jiang Chengji, Zeng Qiliang, Shan Ying and Fu Yong are veterans from the last Olympic Games and key members of the Chinese swimming team.
Chen Yan, world record holder of women's 400 individual medley, didn't train with the team this year because of an injury and her results have slipped. She placed fifth in the women's 400 individual medley during the Olympic trials this May. Her best result this year was 4 minutes 43 seconds, which was 9 seconds slower than the world record she set, putting her at number eight in the world. According to the swimming circles, Chenyan would need a lot of luck to win a medal in the Sydney Games.
Liu Limin, the silver medal winner of women's 100 butterfly stroke in Atlanta Games, returned to Chinese swimming team, giving the Chinese hope for a gold this time. She was ranked in second in the world in the women's 200 meter butterfly and sixth in the women's 100 butterfly stroke when she was training in America without a coach. But Liumin wasn't accustomed to the climate after coming back to China and received mediocre results at the Olympic trials.
China's hopes for winning a medal lie on Zeng Qiliang's shoulders. But his results in the men's 100 meter breast stroke place him around eighth in the world this year. Thus, it would be very difficult for him to win a medal.
More importantly, Chinese veterans are not getting better while swimmers from other countries are improving by leaps and bounds. In the competitions during the first half of this year, more than ten new world records were set. Even in Asia, the Chinese swimming team is no longer the top team now. In earlier competitions between the Chinese and Japanese swimming teams, the Chinese team only won two events out of thirty-two events.
3) Up and Coming Youngsters Unable to Play a Pivotal Role
Qi Hui, the youngest swimmer at fifteen years old, is a bright spot on the Chinese swimming team. Now that Wu Yanyan is banned and Liu Yan and Liu Limin are not in top form, Qi Hui holds the greatest promise to win a gold in the Olympic Games.
Since Qi Hui joined the Chinese swimming team, he has gotten better and better. In the Olympic trials in May, he raised his time to 2 minutes 25.51 seconds, which was the third fastest in the world but still had some distance behind the world champion.
At the Olympic trials in Jinan, some youngsters, such as Liu Yin, Yang Yu, Luo Xuejuan, Xu Yanwei and Zhan Shu did well, but it is not practical to rely on these youngsters to win in Sydney. Chen Yunpeng , the former head coach of the Chinese swimming team, once said, it is easier for the players that participate in the Olympic Games the second time. Lin Li, the famous swimming star who has participated in three Olympics and won the gold in Barcelona, feels the Olympic Games is different from other competitions. It makes demands from all-sides. The appointed time, the competitive atmosphere, the local climate, the food, and many unexpected factors will affect the athletes. The younger athletes obviously don't have the abilities to adapt the different problems.
Zhao Ge said, the past swimmers were better than this group. The swimmers going to this year's Olympic Games are very young. Although some of them aren't bad, they still lag behind the swimmers from Australia, America and Japan.
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