At the Tokyo Olympic Games, the Chinese delegation won a total of 38 gold medals, 32 silver medals and 18 bronze medals, creating the best record for overseas participation. The Chinese swimming team performed particularly well, winning 3 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze, including the women's 4×200m freestyle event and breaking the world record, which was the first Olympic gold medal in the relay event in the history of the Chinese swimming team.
The four people who participated in the final, Yang Junxuan, Tang Muhan, Zhang Yufei and Li Bingjie, received a lot of praise and recognition. But in fact, there are two athletes who are also Olympic champions and won gold medals, but they did not get on the podium to receive the awards, which are often mentioned in the report, they are Zhang Yipan and Dong Jie who appeared in the preliminary round.
In the women's 4×200m freestyle preliminaries on the evening of July 28, China sent Tang Muhan, Zhang Yipan, Dong Jie and Li Bingjie to play, ranking third in 7:48.98 to enter the final. In the final, the Chinese team adjusted its lineup and replaced Zhang Yipan and Dong Jie with Yang Junxuan and Zhang Yufei.
Although Zhang Yipan and Dong Jie did not appear on the podium, according to the regulations, they also had gold medals as a souvenir. The picture below shows Dong Jie the gold medal, she achieved the Olympic gold medal "breakthrough" for Tianjin swimming, and was warmly welcomed after returning to Tianjin on August 24.
On August 8, the Chinese sports delegation sent a letter of thanks to the Tianjin Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, saying that "Tianjin sports athletes are not afraid of strong hands, dare to fight, win 3 gold and 1 bronze, create the best results for the Olympic Games outside the city, and make outstanding contributions to the excellent results of the Chinese sports delegation." Among them, 3 gold refers to Lu Xiaojun (weightlifting), Zhu Xueying (trampoline) and Dong Jie (swimming).
Zhang Yipan thanked his teammates on Weibo: "My first Olympic Games, I am very happy to contribute my own meager strength, thank you to the four big guys for taking the flight, the Chinese swimming team yyds!" ”
It is worth mentioning that similar to Zhang Yipan and Dong Jie, there is also Mark Horton, and many media mistakenly reported that the Australian swimming star did not qualify before the Tokyo Olympics.
In fact, Horton lost the individual event and could not defend his title in the men's 400m freestyle event, but he qualified for the men's 4×200m freestyle relay and played in the preliminaries (did not appear in the final). In the end, Australia won third place in the project, and Horton also had a bronze medal in the account.
The person wearing glasses in the front row is Horton