The Paper's trainee reporter Hu Jie
Ye Shiwen missed the Olympics. Image source: CFP
On July 6, Beijing time, the Chinese Swimming Association announced the Olympic list of the Chinese swimming team, and 30 athletes participated in 34 minor competitions in the swimming event of the Tokyo Olympic Games. Among them, the famous generals Ye Shiwen, Fu Yuanhui and Liu Xiang regretted that they were not selected.
Behind the defeat, the main reason is that the three celebrities will decline in their form after the postponement of the Olympic Games for one year, and the results have not been up to standard. In addition, the average age of the women's team in this list is only 20.3 years old, which means that more and more opportunities are given to young faces.
Fu Yuanhui missed the Olympics.
Three will be unsuccessful, the results are hard injuries
The list of swimming athletes for the Tokyo Olympic Games was released, and the names of Ye Shiwen, Fu Yuanhui and Liu Xiang were suddenly missing, which made many people feel quite uncomfortable.
But in fact, the three people's defeat has long been for the beginning - in the previous Olympic trials and Olympic supplementary competitions, the results of the three have become their hard injuries to the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Ye Shiwen, a former world record holder in the women's 400m medley and Olympic champion, made an Olympic impact on the two events he mainly attacked at the National Swimming Championships held in May. Unfortunately, she only swam 2 minutes 12.57 seconds in the 200m individual medley, which was 0.01 seconds away from the Olympic A standard of 2 minutes 12 seconds and 56 seconds.
Ye Shiwen.
A month later, in the Olympic re-qualifying competition, Ye Shiwen only won the runner-up, with a time of 2 minutes 13.86 seconds, which was a big gap with the A standard. However, in the preliminaries of the previous day, she swam 2 minutes 12.53 seconds, surpassing the A standard by 0.03 seconds.
In the 400-meter medley competition held two days ago, Ye Shiwen failed to hit the A-mark, and although he won the second place, he still had a gap of nearly 6 seconds from the standard line.
At that time, Ye Shiwen was also quite relieved to see such results: "In fact, yesterday's over-standard is also very reluctant, physical fitness is not my strength, recently strengthened aerobic training, but may be relatively short, so the effect is not obvious." ”
"In fact, I am now very calm, face difficulties, and do not pay so much attention to results." Swimming is not just a career, more like a part of my life, just do a good job in my daily life! ”
In contrast, World Championship champion Fu Yuanhui is even more low-key. At the Olympic Trials in May, Fu Yuanhui swam 1 minute 00.29 seconds in the semi-finals of the 100m backstroke, which was enough to reach the final, but the referee sentenced her to a foul for jumping, so she was cancelled and missed the final...
After the game, Fu Yuanhui laughed at herself on her personal Weibo that "there is something wrong" - "Harm, I am not sure that I am a bit of a neurological disease recently, how to always rush to jump." Sigh, something is wrong with a little bit of a problem. ”
Fu Yuanhui Weibo content.
In the Tokyo Olympics substitute event in June, Fu Yuanhui missed the competition, thus giving up her last chance to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.
The most surprising thing is that Liu Xiang, the world record holder in the 50-meter backstroke, missed the Olympic list. Of course, the main reason is that the 50-meter backstroke is not an Olympic event, and Liu Xiang lost to Zhang Yufei in his main 50-meter freestyle.
In the 50m freestyle final, Zhang Yufei chopped the waves and won the championship in 24.32 seconds. Zhejiang's Wu Qingfeng followed, finishing second in 24.37 seconds, and Asian record holder Liu Xiang of Guangdong finished third in 24.61 seconds.
Although all three reached the Olympic A-mark of 24.77 seconds, Liu Xiang lost in the team competition.
Liu Xiang missed the Olympics.
The average age of the women's swimming teams is 20.3 years
Compared with the poor state of Ye Shiwen and Fu Yuanhui, Liu Xiang's failure also caught many swimming fans by surprise, "Liu Xiang actually lost the election, I really didn't expect it." ”
After all, among these three female generals, Liu Xiang is the most outstanding. He swam 24.61.61 seconds in the 50m freestyle final to reach the Olympic A-mark of 24.77 seconds.
However, due to Zhang Yufei's sudden rise, Liu Xiang, whose main event was originally a 50-meter backstroke, seemed a little weak.
As the new leader in Chinese swimming, Zhang Yufei competed in eight events in the May Championships, six of which reached the final and three individual finals, showing excellent competitive status.
Wu Qingfeng, Zhang Yufei, Liu Xiang.
Not only that, in 2003, The young player Wu Qingfeng is also growing rapidly, beating Liu Xiang to the runner-up in the Olympic Trials with a force of 24.37 seconds.
According to the "Tokyo Olympic Swimming Project Selection Measures" promulgated by the Swimming Sports Management Center of the State General Administration of Sport, in the individual finals of the selection competition, the athletes who meet the Olympic A standard and have the best results will be qualified for the selection of up to two people.
In fact, from the list of swimmers at the Tokyo Olympics, it can be seen that the women's team has begun to be updated - the average age of the women's team in the 19-member Olympic team is only 20.3 years old.
The youth storm of the Chinese swimming women's team.
Among them, the oldest is Chen Jie, who won the women's 100m backstroke in the selection competition, she is the only athlete born in 1995; the youngest is Cheng Yujie and Yu Yiting, both born in 2005.
Ye Shiwen, Fu Yuanhui and Liu Xiang are all athletes born in 1996, and their competitive status has declined to varying degrees.
Even if Fu Yuanhui once said, "The previous training was very in place and very hard. "In brutal competitions, physical condition is always an inescapable topic.
Zhang Yufei.
The Olympic lineup "shrunk" and new leaders needed to be born
Due to the epidemic, the Postponement of the Tokyo Olympics for one year not only affected the status of athletes, but also meant that there were only 3 years left before the next Paris Olympic Games, so the four words "renewal" were issues that the national team had to consider.
In the women's team's list, Yang Junxuan, the Asian record holder in the 200m freestyle, Li Bingjie and Wang Jian Jiahe, the mid-distance freestyle players, all have the strength to impact medals, and they are also born in 2002 - it can be said that the Chinese swimming team is about to enter the post-00s era.
Compared with previous Olympic Games, this Tokyo Olympic Games is the smallest number of Chinese swimming teams - the Beijing Olympic Games, with 48 swim teams participating; the list of 51 participants in the London Olympic Games; and the Rio Olympic Games, the Chinese swimming team has 45 participants.
At the Tokyo Olympics, the Chinese swimming team only had 30 participants, including 11 men's teams and 19 women's teams – without thinking, the Chinese swimming team's Olympic lineup "shrank".
Zhang Yufei is a big hit for gold.
With Sun Yang missing out on the Tokyo Olympics, the Chinese swimmer is in dire need of a new leader to step up. Many people set their sights on Zhang Yufei.
Since 2017, only Sweden's Sjöström and Canada's McNeill have swum the 56-second mark in the women's 100-meter butterfly, and Zhang Yufei has broken through 56 seconds three times since October last year.
At the Olympic Trials in May this year, Zhang Yufei swam 2 minutes 06.11 seconds in the preliminaries to win the 2019 World Championships.
From the perspective of results, Zhang Yufei will become the focus of the Chinese swimming team.
Liu Xiang's failure means that Zhang Yufei may not only bear the heavy responsibility of the main 100 butterflies and 200 butterflies to rush the gold, but also shoulder the 50-self competition.
As she said in a previous interview: "I will hone myself before Tokyo." I used to be lazy, but now I push myself even harder — I want to win the Olympics. ”
Editor-in-Charge: Zhu Yi
Proofreader: Luan Meng