July 29, 2021 news, July 29, 2021 belongs to the 23-year-old Chinese swimmer Zhang Yufei!) She won gold in the Tokyo Olympics women's individual 200m butterfly and women's 4x200m freestyle relay finals, becoming the brightest star in the pool! However, there is a cold knowledge about Zhang Yufei, her life on the water began when she was thrown into the pool by her parents.
On April 19, 1998, Zhang Yufei was born in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, into a sports family, to parents who were swimming coaches. In 2001, 3-year-old Xiao Yufei had already followed her mother to "go into the water".
"Because my parents are swimming instructors, I have memories of being in the water every day, swimming every day, swimming every day," she recalls. I don't know whose idea it was, maybe it was a partnership, so I threw it in the water. ”
Zhang Yufei's mother, Zhang Min, is a children's swimming coach, she recalled, Zhang Yufei began to play with water at the age of 3, once in class, tied a floating belt to Zhang Yufei, "She had a lot of fun in the water, I didn't care about her, I took the students to the 5-meter deep water area to practice swimming." As a result, she followed. Then the lifeguards on the shore were scared, 'Oh this little friend, you can't go!' I said, 'It's okay, she's not afraid.' She was having a lot of fun with the kids in the water. ”
When Zhang Yufei was 5 years old, in order to standardize her movements and let her learn to swim, her mother said: "His father and I are both professional swimmers and know how hard it is to be an athlete." Let Yu Fei officially learn to swim, just think that her daughter as a swimmer, at least should be able to swim like a decent. ”
After attending the first grade at Xuzhou Minzhu Road Primary School, which has a tradition of swimming, Zhang Yufei began to learn to swim with the enlightenment coach Kong Miao. Zhang Min said that although she is also a swimming coach, she has never taught Yufei to swim.
"I started training in early 2004 and went through a period of resistance, when I was coaching Kong Miao in Xuzhou City," my mother said. As soon as I sent her to training, she would cry. I cried for about half a year, and I had this thought at that time, if I couldn't do it, I wouldn't practice. ”
Zhang Yufei's enlightenment coach Kong Miao recalled, "She has been practicing at our Xuzhou Aquatic Center until she was 12 years old, and in September 2010 she was selected for the Jiangsu provincial team. When she was eight or nine years old, I noticed that this child's talent began to stand out. We had a relay race at the end of our training. She was very proactive every time, and was the first big athlete in our group or other groups to challenge her. At first, it was more than winning and less, and then as her level improved faster and faster, then it was more and more and less loss. From this point of view, she has been very eager to win the game since she was a child. ”
In 2009, Zhang Yufei was 11 years old and was in the fifth grade of primary school, coach Kong Miao took her to participate in the official competition for the first time, which was a children's swimming competition in Jiangsu Province, and as a result, in the case of only applying for a sub-event, Zhang Yufei's two competitions won the championship. Kong Miao recalled that Zhang Yufei's first champion was the butterfly all-around champion.
The mother recalls one of the things that impressed her daughter most when she was a child: "Once, after graduating from the sixth grade, they were preparing for the Jiangsu Provincial Games, and they were going to Pizhou to participate in a closed training camp. The site was like a factory building with a swimming pool, it was sweltering, and there was no other ancillary equipment. I remember going to see her after a month of training.
She just cried and said to me, 'Mom, you see, why am I not sick?' I said why are you sick? She said, 'You see other athletes they're sick, and when they get sick they can go home.' I don't get sick, I have to practice all the time. When I heard this, I was heartbroken. ’”
At the subsequent Jiangsu Provincial Games, 12-year-old Zhang Yufei shined and won 2 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze. With this excellent result, Zhang Yufei was selected to enter the Jiangsu Provincial Sports School. In less than half a year in the provincial sports school, because of her excellent performance, Zhang Yufei received a notice from the Jiangsu Provincial Swimming Team without trial training, which also created the history of the professional team in Jiangsu Province, when she was only 13 years old.
Zhang Yufei's most important talent is physical fitness, and her body recovers particularly quickly. Kong Miao recalled that Zhang Yufei was given a lactate metabolism test, which reflected the recovery ability of the athlete's body, and Zhang Yufei's ability was significantly higher than that of other children. For swimmers, super physical resilience means "endurance".
She entered the provincial professional team at the age of 13 and the national team at the age of 15, but she was lively and cute since she was a child, and her skin was white and beautiful, which also caused the coach's concern.
Liu Haitao, the head coach of Zhang Yufei in the Rio Olympic cycle, said at the time, "People look more beautiful, the so-called more recruiting." But it wasn't her problem, and it wasn't her fault for being pretty. I said, you're in a period of rising grades, or a good period, and you can't let these (in love) things delay your main things during this period. So I told her, first, you are not allowed to make friends during this period. ”
Zhang Yufei also complained about the coach at the time, "He seemed to ask me, 'How are you with whom?'" I said, 'Friend! But I don't know if he believed it or not. I don't think he'll believe it. Then he didn't say it. ”
Liu Haitao said, "If there is this sign, I will also strangle it in the cradle." Zhang Yufei said, "He may be secretly observing my every move." ”
Under the strict supervision of Coach Liu, Zhang Yufei has made great achievements in the 2 years of following Liu Haitao. At the 2015 World Championships in Kazan, he won a bronze medal at the age of 17 when he participated in the World Championships for the first time, and had the momentum to surpass his sister Jiao Liuyang as the next butterfly.
And this medal was not in her plan before the game, "at that time, I just had the idea of trying it, and I didn't think I could really get it." After the preliminaries, it felt like there was some chance. From the preliminaries to the semi-finals to the finals, I was most nervous about the preliminaries. I didn't sleep well at noon, the semi-finals were very tense, but the finals were not nervous, especially calm. ”
Zhang Yufei, who was smooth sailing, did not expect that Zhang Yufei would suddenly usher in a wave of lows. In the year from 2018 to 2019, her results at the 2018 Hangzhou Short Pool Swimming World Championships and the 2019 Gwangju Swimming World Championships were not ideal, and her frustration was extremely strong.
Mother Zhang Min said that during that time, Zhang Yufei said for the first time that she did not like swimming, revealing that she wanted to give up. Zhang Min was shocked and never thought that her daughter might not like swimming.
From her mother Zhang Min to the enlightenment coach Kong Miao, to Zhang Yufei's head coach Cui Dengrong in the national team, they all tried to communicate with Zhang Yufei and hoped that she would not give up.
After the 2019 World Championships, head coach Cui Dengrong made a decision in response to Zhang Yufei's plight at that time, abandoning the 200-meter butterfly project and practicing 100-meter butterfly instead.
Zhang Yufei recalled, "At that time, the coach asked me not to think about 200 butterflies for the time being, first for 100 butterflies, I listened well, I was happy not to swim 200 butterflies, let go of a project that was so difficult to swim, so it was how you say I would do it, you let me rush my future. ”
Compared with the 200 butterflies, the 100 butterflies have higher requirements for speed and strength, and in the winter training of 2019, Zhang Yufei's training focus shifted from the swimming pool to the power room. Zhang Yufei: "The coach has an idea, we change the way we train, we pay attention to the land, train our physical fitness first, and use the land physical fitness to drive the training in the water." I said, let's give it a try. During that time, he could give up underwater training for my land promotion, he could let out of the underwater training, if you really can't swim today, the water will reduce, but no matter what, your land class can't be lazy at all. ”
Zhang Yufei said that the winter training brought earth-shaking changes to himself, "After such a winter training, there are many times when I sleep at night, I feel that my muscles are burning, and I am in pain." ”
In the end, Zhang Yufei walked out of that gray stage, and from 2020, Zhang Min felt that her daughter became more positive and confident, and her daughter finally crossed another hurdle in her life.
In 2020, Zhang Yufei's Olympic preparations continue to improve their personal results, the best result of the women's 100-meter butterfly is only 0.14 seconds worse than the world record, and the 200-meter butterfly is the best in the world in the past 4 years.
In the women's 100m butterfly competition at the Tokyo Olympics, which was held on July 26, Zhang Yufei won a silver medal with a time of 55.64 seconds, only 0.05 seconds behind Canadian Chinese Athlete McNeil. Although he failed to win the gold, Zhang Yufei's mentality was very relaxed.
Held on the morning of the 29th, in the women's 200-meter butterfly final, Zhang Yufei lived up to expectations, pressing the enemy with 2 minutes 03.86 seconds, winning the gold medal and breaking the Olympic record, winning the 13th gold medal for the Chinese delegation.
In the women's 4x200m freestyle relay final an hour later, the Chinese team, which ranked third in the preliminaries, sent Yang Junxuan, Tang Muhan, Zhang Yufei and Li Bingjie to compete.
Zhang Yufei, who played the third baton, and Australia's Wilson engaged in fierce competition, and the two sides alternated leading positions many times, and the Chinese team still had a slight lead when the bats were handed over.
In the end, the Chinese swimming team played an excellent role, beating the United States to break the world record with 7 minutes and 40 seconds and 3 seconds, adding another gold to the Chinese delegation!
Speaking of this, everyone must be very strange, why did you tell so many stories of Zhang Yufei's mother and daughter, but rarely mention her father, it turns out that Zhang Yufei's father died unfortunately when she was 4 years old, after winning the silver medal in the 100-meter butterfly, Zhang Yufei said in an interview: "My father died when I was four years old, the word father, I may not have called for 13 years, I want to say to my father, Dad, your daughter finally did it." ”
Zhang Yufei said of his father, "If he sees me standing on the Olympic field, or being able to stand on the Olympic podium, he must be very happy." I learned from my mom that my dad didn't want me to take the professional path, and he didn't expect me to be able to swim so well..."
Yes, Zhang Yufei's father saw his daughter win 2 gold medals for China in one day in heaven, and he will be extremely proud and proud of her!