Since the war of words between Sun Yang and Houghton years ago, there has been a sense of tension between the Chinese and Australian swimming teams. In the upcoming Paris Olympics, the Chinese swimming team led by Pan Zhanle, Qin Haiyang and Zhang Yufei is bound to have a "bayonet red" competition with the Australian team, which is good at freestyle.
Fierce competition is on the verge of breaking out, but there is an Australian athlete who hopes to build a bridge between China and Australia that can communicate peacefully. He is Yang Xu, whose English name is William Yang, with a typical Chinese face, but he represents Australia.
1 "I never considered playing for the Chinese team"
The 25-year-old Yang Xu was actually an athlete in the mainland and a member of the Beijing swimming team. He focused on sprint freestyle and backstroke, and at the 2017 National Games, Yang Xu finished eighth in the men's 100 backstroke, when he was only 18 years old.
Why would a young athlete with so much potential choose to represent Australia at international level? You must know that in the several World Championships in the Paris cycle, the performance of the Chinese team has not been inferior to or even surpassed the traditional swimming powerhouse Australia, and if Yang Xu can represent the Chinese team in the freestyle or medley relay, the possibility of standing on the podium will only be higher.
But when asked by reporters why he didn't represent the Chinese team in the competition, Yang Xu replied: "I was born in Australia, and I like it here. As for the Chinese team, he said he had never considered it.
Yang Xu's parents are both Chinese, but he was born in Australia and his father was a successful businessman. At the age of four, he returned to Guangzhou with his parents to settle down, where he began his swimming career. Yang Xu, who emerged in the Beijing team, swam to the finals of the National Games at a young age, but in the fierce competition environment of "becoming famous as soon as possible" in China, Yang Xu did not receive much attention. The domestic sports system generally only cultivates the top athletes, and athletes like Yang Xu who have potential but fail to realize before the age of 18 are generally difficult to be valued and focused on.
So, for the ideals in his heart and years of dedication, Yang Xu chose to leave his hometown, change his nationality, and go to Australia to continue his love of swimming. Unexpectedly, at the Australian National Championships a few months later, Yang Xu became famous!
2. Go to Australia to realize your dreams
Australia has always been a world swimming powerhouse, having given birth to legendary athletes such as Thorpe and Campbell. Moreover, Australia has a very strong swimming atmosphere and scientific training methods. Although they are fierce rivals of the Chinese team on the field, many Chinese swimming stars, including Sun Yang, have also trained in Australia and made breakthroughs with the help of local coaches.
After coming to Australia, Yang Xu also ushered in a leap in his swimming career, and his strength increased greatly, winning the 50 butterfly and 50 back championships at the Australian National Championships, and was successfully selected for the Australian team to compete in the World University Games, and won the gold medal in the 50 butterfly again. Yang Xu also said in the interview: I want to gain more experience through this competition, and I hope to get a ticket to the Olympic Games and win glory for the Chinese!
Under the guidance of Australian swimming legend Hurley, Yang Xu began to specialize in freestyle, which allowed his talent to be more fully unleashed. Soon, with the joint efforts of the master and apprentice, Yang Xu stood out in Australia, a freestyle powerhouse, and won the 100-meter freestyle national championship in 2022, which was pinned on high hopes. At the Budapest World Swimming Championships that year, Yang Xu's Australian team finally won the silver medal, which also put him on the podium on the world stage.
But just as he was moving towards the peak, Yang Xu suffered a huge setback in the 2023 season. At the same time as suffering a shoulder injury, he was found to have a spinal canal tumor that was compressing a nerve and had to undergo surgery. This is undoubtedly disastrous for swimmers who are in their prime of sport. But Yang Xu finally relied on the athlete's unique perseverance and competitive spirit to finally overcome the injury and return to the pool.
In the Gold Coast competition in March this year, Yang Xu won the second place in the 100m freestyle, and his future of participating in the Paris Olympics is bright. If he can compete with Pan Zhanle in the pool at that time, it will undoubtedly be a scene that will be very enjoyable for audiences in both China and Australia.
3Which Chinese athletes do we like? And what do you hate?
It has long been common for athletes like Yang Xu to change their nationality to participate in competitions in order to achieve better career development. What's more, the United States, Canada and Australia, which are immigration countries, will have athletes of different colors on the team. However, there is still a lot of controversy in our country about Chinese athletes representing other countries in competitions.
There are some Chinese athletes in the sport, and most of the audience is not disgusted. For example, the Chinese team has an absolutely dominant sport: table tennis, diving and badminton. Many athletes who are third- and fourth-tier athletes in China go to other countries to represent their local athletes. For example, Ni Xialian, the 60-year-old Shanghai "aunt" who is still representing Luxembourg, and badminton players like the United States and Canada, are almost all Chinese players.
These "teaching" local Chinese athletes can not only help promote these sports and build bridges between China and foreign countries, but on the other hand, their level is not enough to shake the dominance of the Chinese team in these events, so they are mostly praised in domestic public opinion.
In other competitions, the Chinese team itself is not too competitive, and even if there is no Chinese opponent, it is difficult to win the world championship title. For this part of the Chinese athletes, the Chinese people will also be relatively tolerant, and applaud the athletes with Chinese faces to stand on the top of the world. For example, NBA star Jeremy Lin, figure skating world champion Chen Wei, and the youngest tennis Grand Slam champion in history Zhang Depei, they are all Chinese-American athletes who have made achievements in their respective fields and have a good reputation in China.
The most controversial Chinese athletes in China are some players who directly compete with the Chinese team. Two of the most famous examples are two Japanese-Chinese athletes: Chile Koyama and Tomokazu Haramoto. Those who hate them will cite their "disrespectful" behaviors such as yelling and arrogant attitudes on the field. But in the final analysis, this "disgust" still comes from their direct competition with the Chinese team, and even have the experience of defeating the strong in the end. But in fact, for the Chinese table tennis team, which has been alone for too long, some opponents who can "play a dozen" are not a good thing that can promote the promotion and development of this sport.
4 We like Gu Ailing, and we should also support Yang Xu
In fact, in recent years, as China has become more and more integrated into the process of globalization in various fields, it is no longer a new thing for athletes to change their nationality to participate in the competition. There are not only Chinese athletes who represent other countries, but also athletes who were once foreign countries who turn around to represent China. Among them, the most famous is Gu Ailing, who won two Winter Olympic gold medals for the Chinese team.
There are too many aura, stories and controversies about Gu Ailing, so I won't discuss them all in this article. Here is only one statistic, that is, on the 2023 Forbes Female Athlete List, Gu Ailing, who did not participate in any major tournaments in this year, still ranks second with an income of $22.1 million (of which $22 million is off-court income), second only to Swiatek, the world No. 1 in women's tennis, and the off-court endorsement of the Polish queen is only $14 million. It can be said that Gu Ailing's choice to participate in the Olympic Games for the Chinese team is indeed a good move. If she won the world championship for Team USA, her influence and off-court endorsement income could only be one-tenth of what it is today.
If it is said that Gu Ailing is still a blood plan, after all, she has half Chinese blood, then the men's football planning players who have burned money in recent years have a group of "non-blood naturalization". In other words, they originally had nothing to do with China, that is, they took the money of the Football Association to play football in China for a few years, and they could be naturalized to represent the Chinese team in international competitions. Roughly calculated, the total cost of the first batch of planned projects since 2019 has been close to 2.5 billion yuan. After spending so much money, the Chinese football team still lost the 2022 World Cup qualifiers early.
There are examples of this kind of overseas athlete planning in all countries, and even the talented England manager has coveted Haaland. Therefore, planning players is not a problem, but when it comes to specific operations, there are many doorways. When the Football Association wants to plan foreign players, can they put aside the idea of enriching their own pockets and really think about the development of the national team, which is the reason for the complete failure of this batch of national football plans.
5. More understanding and appreciation is the mentality that a great country should have
While we are glad to see that the Chinese market is becoming more and more attractive to overseas talents, we should also pay tribute to the athletes who work hard for their dreams overseas. After all, it's a commendable thing for anyone to be at the top of the world in what they love and excel at, and to be on the highest stage in the world – as long as they don't forget their roots and remember the people who have done for them.
When asked by a deliberately provoked reporter about the Chinese swimming team's drug ban turmoil, Yang Xu avoided answering, but responded that each of us should focus more on our own training level and strive to reach a higher level. Judging from his attitude, even if Yang Xu becomes a competitor of the Chinese team in the Olympic arena, he hopes that we will have more understanding, tolerance and appreciation for such a serious and enthusiastic young man.
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