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>> Zhang Yufei
With Relay Medals, China Announces New Era of Swim Prowess BY MATTHEW DE GEORGE
China’s swim program is too weighed down with medals to count as emerging any more. But at the very least, China’s performance at the Tokyo Olympics marks a potential inflection point. Absent from these Games were arguably the two most recognizable names in the program’s recent history – one suspended for doping infractions (Sun Yang), one failing to qualify (Ye Shiwen). Yet China managed to still finish tied for fifth with six total medals from the pool. Even more impressive is the array of talent that got them there and the pair of relay medals that are indicative of the program’s depth. The six medals fit with the recent history from China. It won six at the 2016 Rio Games and the 2008 home Games in Beijing before ramping up to 10 in London in 2012. But even that London tally featured a lone relay bronze, as opposed to relay gold (women’s 800 free) and silver (mixed medley) in Tokyo. It can be difficult to remember that the Chinese program, as recently as the 2000 Sydney Games, was completely shut out of the medals, despite smatterings of success in the 1990s (much of it dogged by rumors if not many actual findings of 36
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doping, in the women’s program in particular). The capstone performance was the women’s 800 free relay, in which Yang Junxuan, Tang Muhan, Zhang Yufei and Li Bingjie set the world record in 7:40.33. Yang’s outstanding opening leg of 1:54.37 built a two-second lead over the U.S., which clawed back all but four tenths in an American record that resulted in silver. All three medalists, with the Australians in bronze, undercut the old world record. “We didn’t expect to win the gold,” Li said. “We just tried to finish third because Australia and the United States are very strong.” That relay provided the Chinese story of the meet, with Zhang, fresh off gold in the women’s 200 fly, not told until after that swim that she would be on the relay. “I didn’t know I was doing it until I’d finished the 200 butterfly and our coach told me, ‘you’re in the relay,’” she said. “I didn’t even know how to swim the 200 free, although I have the training qualities and levels for the 200m distances. At the Chinese National Championships, I went very fast, so maybe that’s why the coaches asked me to join the relay.”
