They might have the potential, but are far from ready for the
Beijing Olympic Games.
Over 300 swimmers, mostly under 19 years old, raced intensively
for ten days at the Chinese City Games from last Saturday, but few
of them kindled the pool with the Beijing Olympics approaching.
Li Xuanxu, 13, was the brightest star in Wuhan as the diminutive
girl swept three golds with world-class performance.
She took the victory in the 200 meters individual medley in two
minutes 13.98, the 14th fastest time this year. Her winning result
of 4:37.56 in the 400m individual medley was even more impressive.
It was placed sixth in this year's world rankings and could even
have brought her the silver from this year's world
championships.
Li went on to claim her third gold in the 800m freestyle with a
personal best of 8:27.65, almost another top 10 result in 2007.
With these astonishing feats, Li was even described as the
"fastest 13-year-old in history" by a foreign professional swimming
website, and was believed "on a path to upsetting the medley apple
cart in Beijing."
However, Li's coach Feng Zhen wasn't so optimistic.
"She was too young to keep stable," said Feng. "She failed to
eat or sleep normally during Japan Open, her first international
meet, and felt upset once she didn't make progress in
competitions."
Feng's other disciples such as You Meihong and Yu Xin also
showed extraordinary potentials in women's long-distance races, but
lack of tests in international events.
Jiao Liuyang, who finished fourth at the world championships,
won her specialty of women's 200m butterfly in 2:08.18, even though
the time was far behind her personal best of 2:07.06, which is the
world's fifth best time this season.
In the men's competitions, Wu Peng, the world championships
silver medal winner in the men's 100m butterfly, could hardly
convince the fans that he could become the first Chinese male
swimmer to win an Olympic medal.
The 20-year-old's performance was worrisome, if not
disappointing, at the City Games.
Losing to Shi Feng in his favorite 100m butterfly last month, Wu
was defeated again. Although he unsurprisingly triumphed in the
200m, he will have to do more for his preparation for the Olympics
to silence the critics.
Sun Yang, 16, who competed in his first world championships last
March, breezily won titles of men's 400m and 1,500m freestyle but
he had no reason to feel overjoyed because it would be a different
story if China's top long-distance swimmer Zhang Lin had competed
in the Games.
All-rounder Liu Weijia, 18, grabbed three golds and two bronzes
out of six finals and improved his career best in both of the 200m
and 400m individual medley.
But Liu, who had qualified for the Beijing Olympics, could still
barely make any achievements 10 months later for failing to swim
into top 20 in both individual medley events this year.
No wonder Chinese officials were worried about the Chinese
youngsters' performances.
Xu Qi, director of the swimming department of the Chinese
Swimming and Diving Management Center, said, "If the Chinese
swimmers could not improve their techniques as soon as possible,
they were unlikely to achieve good results until the 2016 Olympics.
"
Xu also believed that the young swimmers needed to strengthen
their mentality.
"Some of them trained well but failed to perform normally in the
competitions," he added.
(Xinhua News Agency October 30, 2007)