Swimming Olympic champion Le Jingyi and sailing Olympic champion Xu Lijia and the program editor
Speaking of the Chinese swimming scene in the 1990s, Le Jingyi's name is a household name, she not only won the women's 100 freestyle at the Atlanta Olympic Games, but also the swimmer who broke the world record the most in Chinese history. In this issue of "Sports Music", a generation of "post-swim" talks with us, sharing with us her sports journey over the years, and also expressing her own views on issues such as stimulants that have aroused public discussion. Without further ado, wait for you to listen.
Rikayyoraku Raku q&a
Xu Lijia: Are you one of those athletes who shows their talents at a very young age?
LE Jingyi: Obviously not. When I was a child, I always suffered from "whooping cough" and upper respiratory tract infections because of my poor health, so I learned to swim in order to strengthen my physical fitness. I grew up as a very naughty and playful child who always liked to fight with people in the alley. At first, my swimming level was not outstanding, but I only entered the swimming class because I was tall. I have the impression that I was almost eliminated several times in the middle, and even "thrown" by the coach to the flower tour team and the webbed swim team, but in the end I was returned to the swimming team because of factors such as too high and too long legs. Later, I entered the Shanghai team because of the "big change of blood" of the team members, which needed a lot of replenishment from young players, and I was reluctantly "wasted" into the Shanghai swimming team.
Le Jingyi's early years photos
Xu Lijia: How much training do short-distance swimmers train every day?
Le Jingyi: At that time, I usually traveled about 15,000 meters a day for training, divided into two training sessions in the morning and afternoon. I think swimming is not the biggest challenge for us, the hardest and most painful thing is the intensity. For example, we used to have a kind of training that was to swim for 10,000 meters continuously, and I felt very comfortable after this training swim. But if it is to fight for intensity training, training a complete individual cannot eat or sleep.
Le Jingyi when he won gold at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta
Xu Lijia: As an emerging swimming power at that time, the eyes of the whole world are looking at us, especially for stimulants, and they are very tightly watched, what was the frequency of your detection at that time?
Le Jingyi: When I was an athlete, I had as many tests as five times a week, like clocking in at work, and then the testing even became a part of life. Testing organizations are both domestic and international, and the process is extremely strict. At that time, there was a foreigner living in China for a long time to check for doping, as long as the anti-doping center faxed him and made a list, he immediately came to us. He knew all the places where I lived, whether it was Beijing, Shanghai, or the address of the yunnan plateau training base. Interestingly, as the number of tests increased, I even became friends with this inspector, and we often went out to eat hot pot.
Chinese swimming "five golden flowers" at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics
Xu Lijia: How do you view the views of international public opinion on the problem of doping by chinese swimmers?
Le Jingyi: I have always believed that doping is not only a problem for us in China, but also a problem in every country in the world, and that doping itself was invented by Americans. They use double standards on the issue of doping, as they do on many other issues now. China's swimming level has risen rapidly since 1992, winning four consecutive gold medals at the Barcelona Olympics, and many excellent swimmers have emerged in the following years, especially in 1994. At this time, some external forces, such as the United States, Australia and Japan, began to target and suppress us.
But I felt at the time that the relationship between us and foreign players was fine, all this didn't have much to do with athletes, we just wanted pure training and competition. Many times it is the public opinion environment that raises the problem to another height, including now, turning a certain problem into a topic and contradiction, which is particularly bad.
Types of stimulants and their use
Xu Lijia: You have broken nine swimming world records, which record impressed you the most?
Le Jingyi: Speaking of world records, although I broke a lot, I am actually not very satisfied deeply. Because I felt like my 50m freestyle could swim faster. In particular, I remember that it was at the 1994 Asian Games, when I had reached the limit both in terms of pre-race preparation and personal status, and I did not register for the 100 meters in that race, and I focused on the 50 meters in the first few months of the race. So I think I'm very hopeful of breaking the world record again, or even breaking the 24-second mark, which would have been a pretty big leap forward for the swimming world at the time. But, unfortunately, I fouled up as soon as the race started and missed a very valuable opportunity to break the record.
The 1994 World Swimming Championships in Rome broke several world records
Xu Lijia: After winning the gold medal in the 1996 Olympic Games, did you consider fighting another Olympic Games?
Le Jingyi: In 1993, our country bid for the 2000 Olympic Games, and then I thought that if the bid was successful, I would swim until 2000. But then it didn't work out, so I thought it was better. Personally, I have always believed that as an athlete, you must have a strong motivation to promote it in order to persist in high-intensity training for many years. After 1996, my world record was also broken, and I won the World Championships and the Olympic Games, and in general, if it were not for the Olympic Games held on my doorstep, my motivation to continue to participate would not be so strong.
Xu Lijia: Do you still swim a lot now? Swimming time passes slowly, it is difficult to insist, how can this problem be broken?
Le Jingyi: At present, I still maintain swimming practice in the "Star Swimming Club" every weekend, of course, the intensity is only 1/3 of the past when I was an athlete, about an hour and a half of swimming each time. Swimming is well known as an individual sport, but I think the more time club people swim together will pass faster. In addition, underwater headphones are now available on the market, which can make the swimming process less boring by listening to music while swimming.
Le Jingyi during amateur training at the club on weekends (left)
Guest Profiles
Le Jingyi, born in Shanghai in 1975, officially began to learn to swim in 1982, was selected for the Shanghai team in 1988, and entered the national team in 1991. At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Le Jingyi won the silver medal in the women's 4*100m freestyle with her teammates, and won four gold medals at the 1994 World Swimming Championships in Rome and broke four world records. In 1995, Le Jingyi was nominated for the Owens Award. At the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Le Jingyi won gold medals in the women's 100m freestyle and silver medals in the 50m freestyle.
In his career, Le Jingyi broke a total of 9 world records and is still the Chinese swimmer who has broken the most world records. After retiring from the army, Le Jingyi engaged in swimming youth training and actively participated in swimming masters competitions, diving, marine environmental protection and other projects.
Author: Xu Lijia & Xia Biao
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