In the early morning of August 2, Beijing time, in the women's 200-meter butterfly final of the Paris Olympic Games, Chinese team member Zhang Yufei swam with all her strength to a time of 2:05.09 despite having a fever the day before. Earn a bronze medal. This is also her third medal at this Olympics.
After the game, Zhang Yufei choked with tears during the interview. She said: "I just had a fever yesterday, and after I recovered today, it was the first day of my menstrual period. My whole right side was numb. I didn't expect it to happen so quickly. Because I was numb before entering the water, I didn’t prepare as usual. I swam a thousand meters and competed at 8:30. I didn’t get ready until 7:50. To put it bluntly, I might die in the swimming pool. Let's go!"
Zhang Yufei went into battle and won the bronze medal again after having a fever.
Netizen: "You are already great."
After arriving at the side, Zhang Yufei took a look at the results, then lowered his head and held the edge of the swimming pool with both hands for a long time, as if this had just ended. The women's 200-meter butterfly final had exhausted all her strength.
2 minutes, 05 seconds and 09 seconds, which is far inferior to her time when she won the championship in Tokyo, but it is also the fastest time she has swam in the competition in the past three years.
In the 200-meter butterfly preliminaries held on July 31, Zhang Yufei advanced strongly with a time of 2:06.55, ranking first. In the semifinals that day, Zhang Yufei swam with a time of 2:06.09, ranking third in the semifinals and successfully advancing to the finals. But after the semifinals, Zhang Yufei said that she had a fever again and her physical condition was not ideal. Despite this, Zhang Yufei still chose to compete in the 200-meter butterfly final. She said that she would try her best to swim the last shot of butterfly and "try to look at the podium in the next game."
▲On August 1, Chinese player Zhang Yufei was competing. According to Xinhua News Agency, in the
finals, Zhang Yufei's face turned pale when she came out in the camera, and she quickly entered the state after entering the swimming pool. In the fierce competition in the women's 200-meter butterfly, Zhang Yufei turned around and led her opponent McIntosh in the first 50 meters. After 100 meters, Zhang Yufei was still in the lead. In the third 50 meters, McIntosh rushed to first place and Zhang Yufei was second. In the sprint stage, Zhang Yufei tried her best and swam a time of 2 minutes, 05 seconds and 09, and finally won the bronze medal. McIntosh broke the Olympic record set by Zhang Yufei in Tokyo with a time of 2:03.03.
After the game, Zhang Yufei also said in an interview, "I hope to use my performance to make everyone recognize that Chinese athletes are not a flash in the pan, but can be as long-lasting as foreign athletes."
In the previous women's 100-meter butterfly final, Zhang Yufei also won Won a bronze medal. After the award ceremony, when Zhang Yufei was waving and interacting with the audience, a tear fell quietly, and she quickly wiped it away with her hands. Subsequently, the topic "Yufei, don't cry" became a hot search topic on Weibo around 5 a.m. In this regard, Zhang Yufei said after the game that if you lose, you lose. There will be no unwillingness. It is because you are not better than yourself.
▲On August 1, Chinese player Zhang Yufei was at the award ceremony. She finished third. According to Xinhua News Agency
Zhang Yufei reached the podium for the third time in this Olympic Games, and won bronze medals all three times. Talking about having won 7 Olympic medals, she said: "I may be a little greedy. I hope I can get another gold medal before the end of my career. If I get another gold medal, I will be very satisfied."
On social platforms, Netizens left messages to Zhang Yufei saying: "You are already great." Zhang Yufei, a "model worker" in the swimming world, once swam 12 times in the eight-day competition. After the game, Zhang Yufei talked about her participation in the competition while sick in an interview. She said that it is best not to exercise strenuously when you are sick, and that getting sick during competition is a taboo for athletes and is not something to be praised.
Zhang Yufei has always been known as the "model worker" in the swimming world. At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, in just 8 days of competition, Zhang Yufei swam a total of 12 shots in the preliminaries and finals.
not only swims "more", but also swims faster. In the women's 200-meter butterfly swimming final of the Tokyo Olympic Games, Zhang Yufei won the gold medal with a time of 2:03.86 and set a new Olympic record.Just 80 minutes later, in the women's 4×200m freestyle relay final, Zhang Yufei and Yang Junxuan, Tang Muhan, Li Bingjie broke the world record in 7 minutes, 40.33 seconds and won another gold.
The year before the Paris Olympics was the year when Zhang Yufei broke out. From the Fukuoka World Championships in July 2023 to the Chengdu Universiade, Zhang Yufei swam 30 times in 15 days and won a total of 11 gold medals. At the World Championships, she won 1 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze in individual events; at the Chengdu Universiade, she won all 9 events she signed up for; at the Hangzhou Asian Games, she won 6 more gold medals.
▲Zhang Yufei According to ic photo
For the Paris Olympics, Zhang Yufei entered the competition state as early as last year, and her entry and mentality were aligned with the Olympics. Last year, when asked by the media why she signed up for nine events at the Chengdu Universiade, Zhang Yufei said, "Everyone asked me why I signed up for so many nine events. You can see me playing every day, and I swim two or three times in each game. I just want to practice my ability to continue fighting, so that I can know how to deal with this situation when it happens at the Paris Olympics next year."
Zhang Yufei also said in an interview with Red Star News that she is optimistic, forgetful, and sleeps on unhappy things. Just forget it. If it doesn't work, just sleep. If it doesn't work, just have a hot pot meal.
Zhang Yufei also experienced ups and downs in status and mood before. At the 2022 World Swimming Championships in Budapest, she won bronze medals in the women's 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly, which put pressure on her.
Zhang Yufei said in an interview that coach Cui Dengrong coach has enlightened her mentality a lot, "The coach told me that no one can always stand in the first position. You have to learn to accept failure. Our goal will not change. , but you have to accept that you are an imperfect person."
Red Star News reporter Qiang Yaxian
editor Guo Yu and editor-in-chief Deng Zhaoguang
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