On the afternoon of July 31, Beijing time, the swimming competition of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games continued at the La Défense Stadium. A total of three individual events will be contested this afternoon, including the women's 200m breaststroke, women's 200m butterfly and men's 200m backstroke. All three events have Chinese players participating, with veteran Ye Shiwen making his Paris debut and Zhang Yufei playing. In the end, Ye Shiwen in the women's 200-meter breaststroke, Zhang Yufei and Chen Luying in the women's 200-meter butterfly all successfully qualified. Xu Jiayu in the men's 200m backstroke gave up the race.
In the women's 200m breaststroke preliminaries, veteran Ye Shiwen participated, which was also her first appearance in this Olympic Games. Ye Shiwen played well, finishing second in the group and fourth overall with a time of 2:23.67, and successfully advanced to the semifinals. South Africa's Smith was first, Netherlands' Schouten was second and United States' Douglas was third.
In the women's 200m butterfly preliminaries, Zhang Yufei and Chen Luying represented the Chinese team, and both were divided into the third group. Zhang Yufei, the Olympic record holder in this event, swam 2:06.55 and Chen Luying swam 2:09.31, respectively, finishing first and fourth in the group. In the overall ranking of the preliminaries, Zhang Yufei and Chen Luying ranked 1st and 11th respectively, and both advanced to the semifinals. United States' Smith and Australia's Connor were second and third.
In the men's 200m backstroke preliminaries, Chinese star Xu Jiayu abandoned the race. Previously, Xu Jiayu had won the silver medal in the men's 100m backstroke. He will reportedly continue to compete in relay races. Michukov of Switzerland, Mertens of Germany and Kotze of South Africa round out the top three.