The Paper's reporter Pu Yaolei and Ma Zuoyu were sent from Tokyo
Xu Jiayu, Yan Zibei, Zhang Yufei, Yang Junxuan.
At the Tokyo Olympics, the men's and women's 4×100-meter medley relay is a sport that has attracted the attention of Chinese sports fans. Last year, the Chinese team broke the world record in the project, which made people have more expectations.
Coming to the arena in Tokyo, the Chinese team did not disappoint, and a silver medal proved the strength of the team. The Chinese team also won a medal in the first Olympic appearance in the project.
However, rubbing shoulders with the gold medal and being broken by the opponent to break the world record held by himself, it is still inevitable that the players will regret it.
After the game, Yan Zibei burst into tears: "It is a pity that my coach did not become the coach of the Olympic champion, this time is also the closest to the gold medal." ”
But this team will not be depressed, as Xu Jiayu said: "Next year we will break the [world record]." ”
Xu Jiayu had some regrets.
For the relay, the team members all fought
At the National Championships held in October 2020, the team composed of Xu Jiayu, Yan Zibei, Zhang Yufei and Yang Junxuan set a new world record for the 4×100m medley relay between men and women.
Since then, these four handsome men and women have made the Olympic Games their ultimate goal.
Zhang Yufei, who played the butterfly stick, has previously swum the 100-meter butterfly, the 200-meter butterfly and the women's 4×200-meter freestyle relay event, and won two golds. And on July 31, shortly before the final of the men's and women's 4× 100m medley relay, she also swam a shot in the semifinals of the women's 50m freestyle.
The pressure on physical fitness is a test for Zhang Yufei, but she has no reservations for the sake of collective honor.
"My teammates are still worried that I won't be able to swim after swimming in the 50m freestyle today. Rest assured, I'm strong and won't swim. Zhang Yufei said after the game, still with a smile on his face.
But from her description, you can still feel that this persistence is far from as easy as it seems, "The 200-meter butterfly was really tired that day, and there was a preliminary round of the mixed relay between men and women that day, and yesterday there was a preliminary round of the 50-meter freestyle, and the whole person was a bit adrift." The coach said I didn't know what I was doing when I came to the venue, and I said I hadn't 'woken up' yet, and I was 'awake' by this morning. ”
Xu Jiayu, who played the first backstroke, also had physical problems in this Olympic Games.
After the preliminaries of the 100-meter backstroke, he vomited and was pushed away by a wheelchair. He had a severe stomach ulcer before, and combined with high-intensity exercise triggered a gastrointestinal reaction, which led to physical discomfort. He later withdrew from the 200m backstroke.
"After that, I will adjust my body and mood well, go to the hospital for examination and examination, let myself have no worries, and then put into training, thank you for your concern." The body is the capital to realize dreams, and half of the dream was completed today. He told reporters after the game.
Yan Zibei felt a little remorseful after the game.
After the silver is picked, there is only unity and gratitude
For his physical condition during the Olympic Games, Xu Jiayu was also a little helpless: "When it is not compared, there is no problem, as long as there is a problem with a comparison." ”
The most depressed after the game may be Yan Zibei, who plays a breaststroke. In an interview after the game, he couldn't help but cry and blame himself.
"It's a pity that I didn't win the championship, I didn't play well, otherwise the next two sticks would be much better." He told reporters.
"It's a pity that my coach didn't become the coach of the Olympic champion, this time is also the closest to the gold medal, go back and sum it up."
Indeed, in the breaststroke stick, the championship-winning British team has the first man in the breaststroke, Adam Pitty, and it is not easy to gain an advantage in the face of strong opponents. After the game, for the frustrated Yan Zibei, the other three teammates all came forward to comfort him.
"I also said to Abe before the game, no matter how bad you swim, you are also China's 'first frog', what are you afraid of." We are the best in every single item in China, and we don't need to blame ourselves. Xu Jiayu said so after the game.
Zhang Yufei also said: "It has not been easy for him to be more than a year old, and I think he is very strong until now." After today's game, I felt like he was a bit remorseful and felt that the results were not satisfactory, but as a teammate, I think he swam well. ”
After adjusting his mood, Yan Zibei also looked to the future: "I think this project can best reflect whether a country is strong in swimming, and last year we won the world record, which proves that our country's swimming is very strong." Taking the second place today also shows that Chinese swimming is very good and will get better and better in the future. ”
Zhang Yufei and Yang Junxuan.
Support each other to break the world record
In fact, this silver medal not only makes Yan Zibei feel regretful, but also difficult for Xu Jiayu to say that it is satisfactory.
He originally wanted to use the Olympic gold medal to comfort coach Xu Guoyi, who unfortunately died of illness last year: "(The silver medal) is still not enough to return, or we need to continue to work hard, I think I can do better in the future." ”
But although there are regrets, he still thanked his teammates for their efforts: "We have been closed for a long time due to the epidemic, everyone is very hard, and they are all working hard to get to today. ”
In fact, in order to achieve the goal of gold medal in the Olympic Games, this Chinese team did pay a lot in its usual training. As Zhang Yufei said, because the four team members come from different groups, in order to train in the relay project together, it is inevitable that they will have to sacrifice some of their own training time to cooperate.
"At first, it felt like this project was more interesting, but after officially joining the Olympic Games, we will have ideas, such as wanting to stand on the podium or even go to the gold rush, last year we did break the world record, this time is not only fun." 」
Although there were some disappointments, under the encouragement of each other, the four players also quickly adjusted their mentality.
This time, the British team won the championship with a time of 3:37.58, breaking the world record of 3:38.4 held by the Chinese team. This will be the next target of the Chinese team.
"We'll break [the world record] next year." Xu Jiayu said firmly.
Editor-in-Charge: Ascendas
Proofreader: Ding Xiao