Wang Shun (left) and Zhu Zhigen
On July 30, my apprentice Wang Shun finally realized his dream. As a coach, I am very happy to see him win the men's 200m medley title and stand on the top olympic podium.
Because this is a historic breakthrough in the medley event of Chinese men's swimming, it is also a gold medal and an honor that Wang Shun has fought for after the unremitting efforts of three Olympic Games.
Wang Shun, 27 years old this year, is the oldest athlete on the Chinese swimming team to enter the Olympic team, but he also trained the hardest. In order to adapt to the rhythm of the evening preliminaries and the morning finals, he starts training at 7 o'clock every morning, and even when he arrives in Tokyo, this habit has not changed. He set an example for the whole team with his actions.
In this Olympic Games, the Chinese swimming team fought bravely to be the first, and athletes such as Zhang Yufei and Wang Shun performed well. Everyone worked together to achieve a good result of 3 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze in the indoor swimming project. I'm going to give them a thumbs up!
For 41 years, I have coached the Zhejiang provincial team and the national swimming team, and have trained a number of Olympic champions and world champions. I know very well that if I want athletes to walk in the forefront of the world, coaches must also continue to learn advanced training concepts and methods from abroad, use them for me, and seek innovation.
The one-year extension of the Tokyo Olympic preparation period has brought us many challenges. I adjusted my strategy in time, changed the training cycle, and strengthened my physical training in a targeted manner on the basis of the previous "three from one" to enhance medical security, and the performance of many athletes rose rapidly.
People who know me well know that I am very strict, because I follow such a sentence: "If you want to produce results, you must manage strictly and carefully." "Every time I lead a team training, I have to walk back and forth by the pool, supervising the athletes at all times, helping them cut the details and practice the movements in place. Because of my diabetes, I may occasionally not be able to grasp the chopsticks, but I am determined to hold the stopwatch in my hand.
Of course, I also feel sorry for this group of children. Before Wang Shunbi's final, in order to ensure that he could rest well, I sat in the corridor, guarding his door, reminding those who passed by to slow down and whisper.
To be a coach is to give wholeheartedly in order to bring good athletes. Training is harsh, life is caring, athletes can feel your dedication to him from the coach's words and deeds, and even a look in his eyes. After stepping off the podium, Wang Shun hung the gold medal around my neck, and I felt very proud and proud.
I'm about to turn 64 years old, and I've already followed the national team to the Olympics six times, and my disciples have won gold medals for three consecutive years. Watching wave after wave of young athletes stand out and grow in the competition makes it difficult for me to give up the job of coaching.
Maybe now my physical strength and energy are not as good as young people, but my thinking is not outdated, I also want to cultivate more good swimmers for the country, establish a talent echelon, and emerge more outstanding athletes at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou and the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris to win glory for the country.
As long as the country still needs me, I will continue to persevere and fight for the cause of Chinese swimming for the rest of my life!
(The author is the coach of the Chinese swimming team, and the reporters of this newspaper, Sun Longfei and Li Shuo, interviewed and sorted out)
Editors of this issue: Sun Longfei and Ma Qianhui