On the morning of September 21, the 14th National Games Swimming Women's 200m Individual Medley Preliminary Round was held at the Swimming Hall of Xi'an Olympic Sports Center. This is the first individual event competition that London Olympic double gold medalist Ye Shiwen participated in at the National Games, and she successfully advanced to the preliminary round with a time of 2 minutes 14.97 seconds and the second place in the preliminary round. After the game, Xiaoyezi revealed that in order to prepare for the National Games, she carefully prepared for three months, feeling that all aspects have been greatly improved, and during this period she had to be practiced crying almost every day, and sometimes when she wanted to give up, Brother Shun (Wang Shun) gave her great support and encouragement.
A day ago, Ye Shiwen's teammate Fu Yuanhui once lamented that he was too "old", and it was not easy to persist in the pool at this age. In fact, Xiaoyezi is also the same year as Fu Yuanhui, both were born in 1996, Fu Yuanhui is only 2 months older than Ye Shiwen, so in the pool of this National Games, Ye Shiwen is also a "veteran". According to statistics, the oldest female athlete to participate in the swimming competition of the National Games is Lu Ying, born in 1989, she is the only former 90s (both men and women), while Fu Yuanhui and Ye Shiwen are ranked second and third respectively.
Everyone remembers Ye Shiwen's glory at the London Olympics, and everyone knows that she continued to slump for a period of time. At the 2019 Gwangju Swimming World Championships, Ye Shiwen broke out again, winning the silver medal in the 200 meters and 400 meters in the women's individual medley, only to lose to the Hungarian star Hoszu, known as the "Iron Lady". However, when swim fans were looking forward to Xiaoyezi returning to the peak, because of some unexpected factors and the emergence of the new crown epidemic, the Olympic Games ate for a year, which made Xiaoyezi's state decline again, and he failed to qualify for Tokyo.
But just when people felt that Ye Shiwen might fall into the trough again, Xiaoyezi chose to insist on and continue to participate in the National Games and contribute to his hometown. Since May, when she lost her Olympic qualification, Ye Shiwen has been involved in the arduous preparations for the National Games. Ye Shiwen told the Beiqing-Beijing headline reporter that according to her own situation, she appropriately reduced physical training, and increased the training of swimming special techniques, and the training of large exercise every day almost trained herself to cry. Xiaoyezi also said a detail, "Sometimes I really feel that I will not be able to persevere, it is the timely encouragement of Brother Shun (Wang Shun) that gives me the motivation to persevere, he always says 'you can do it', so after more than three months of hard training, I have persevered." ”
In this National Games, Ye Shiwen showed a very high competitive state, she has won the gold medal in the 4×200m medley relay. In that game, in the case of the first zhejiang team lagging behind a lot in the backstroke, Ye Shiwen's swimming process in the breaststroke stick was surprising, Ye Shiwen quickly surpassed the leading Hubei athlete in the first 50 meters, and this stick was more than 8 seconds ahead of the second place when she touched the wall, directly laying the championship foundation for the Zhejiang team, such a performance vaguely reminds people of the scene when she was 15 years old in the final of the 200-meter medley at the Shanghai World Championships, which can only be described as "open and hanging". Ye Shiwen said, "In fact, I swim too hard in the future, and I have some speed down in the back, otherwise I can swim faster." ”
Now that Ye Shiwen's main event has shifted from medley to 200m breaststroke, she hopes to beat her main rival, Beijing's Yu Jingyao, in this event at the National Games. In the 200-meter individual medley, Xiaoyezi's goal is to swim to a score of about 2 minutes and 10 seconds. Ye Shiwen said, "Although it is a little regrettable that I did not participate in the Olympic Games, it also gave me time to precipitate, and I also thought about it a lot, and this period of training, competition, and life actually made me more mature and gained a lot of things." ”
For Ye Shiwen, the recovery and improvement of grades fell second, and what is important is that everyone saw the confidence of the past from her face, and also saw the happiness brought to her by swimming, which must be what her late mentor Xu Guoyi hoped to see.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Liu Ailin
Editor/Zhou Xueshuai