Awards at Swimming Nationals/Olympic trial

The best male swimmer: Wang Shun

Wang won 3 golds in IM double and 200m free. His swims in Nationals were all slower than his pb but he won the most golds in this championships. He won bronze in 200m IM at Worlds last year.

The best female swimmer: Shi Jinglin

Shi won breaststroke double and set a pb in 100m breaststroke at 1:06.2. She won bronze in 200m breaststroke at Worlds last year

Breakthrough award: Xu Jiayu and Li Zhuhao

Both swam national records. Xu broke his own men's 200m back and it is his first to get into 1:54 region. Xu also won backstroke double. Li on the other hand tied Zhou Jiawei's record at 51.24, which was swum in tech suit back in 2009. Li was a double winner in men's butterfly.

Heritage award: Chen Xinyi

Chen is a up and coming butterfly and sprinting freestyle ace who could be a potential successor of her veteran swimmers like Liu Zige and Jiao Liuyang in butterfly and a potential Asian record breaker in women's 50m free, which was the last record in the book from the 1990s era held by Le Jingyi in 1994 (24.51). She will also be a potential Olympic medalist in 100m fly as a current world 2nd fastest swimmer.  

Potential award: Shen Duo and Qiu Yuhan

Shen has won multiple golds at Youth Olympics in 2014 in front of her home crowd (Nanjing) and two-time finalist (100 and 200m free) at Worlds last year. She also anchored for the 4x100m medley relay team to win the gold at Worlds and was part of the bronze-winning team in 4x200m free relay. Qiu has been a consistent improver in 100/200m free and she stepped up and swam a 1:56 first leg in 4x200m free relay final at Worlds. They both enter 1:55 territories in 200m free at recent Nationals and are ready to swim fast at Rio Olympics if preparation goes well.

Sportsmanship award: Liu Zige and Lu Ying

Both 27-year-old veterans have different fate to their Olympic road. Liu, Olympic champion in 2008, World champion in 2013, and world record holder, failed to qualify for her 3rd Olympics in her signature event, 200m butterfly. Her time was still decent at 2:08 though. She has been nagged by the neck and shoulder injury. Lu, on the other hand, only started to shine in 2010 at Asian Games and since has been a medalist in all major competitions. Once again, she qualified for her 2nd Olympics but will need to be at peak (like her 1st one) to medal again.

Courage award: Ye Shiwen

A lot of doubts have been hovering over Ye. After her double IM wins at London Olympics 4 years ago, a 16 year-old has been going through a lot in this 4 years. At first, she needed to respond to the doping doubts on her when she swam faster in the last 100m in 400m IM than the male champion, Ryan Lochte. She has been a nervous kid, who was reportedly suffered from insomnia. The external suspect only adds on to her existing stress. Then her physique has a drastic change in these 4 years as she has been struggling with her weight problem. It takes efforts to change her training and technique to cater for her ever-changing body.  Last year, she had fractured bones in her foot and could not swim well in the Worlds last year. At the recent Nationals, she suffered from stomach cramp in the middle of 400m IM final and could not finish top 3. Then she bounced back to win 200m IM in a few days later after that disappointment. She was quoted that her form has recovered to 60-70% and will train in Australia for her Olympic preparation.  

Team award: 4x200m free: Wang, Li Yunqi, Qiu Ziao, Shang Keyuan

Wang and Shang are both Zhejiang. while Li from Henan and Qiu from Shanghai. They swam a 7:13, which should be good enough to qualify for Olympics. At Olympics, if Sun Yang is part of the team (you never know), he will be one of indispensable component to propel the team to medal position.

Newcomer award: Qiao and Ai Yanhan
Qiao won 2 golds in 400m/1500m free and qualified for Olympics. It will be more of an experience for Qiao in the games rather than winning medals. Ai, still a 14-year-old girl, swam 1:56 low at recent Nationals, has been tipped to be one of the next swimmer stars. This is still hard to say for Ai as China has been producing fast teenager swimmers who seldom fulfil their potentials in their later years.

Coach award: Yao Zhenjie, Zhu Zhigen, Xu Guoyi, Liu Haitao, Han Bingyan, Jin Wei, Li Xuegang, Cui Dengrong, He Donghui

Coach and swimmers
Zhu: Wang Shun and Shang Keyuan (Past: Chen Hua, Yu Cheng and Sun Yang)
Xu: Ye Shiwen, Li Zhuhao and Xu Jiayu
Liu: Zhou Yilin, Ai Yanhan, Hao Yun (Past: Jiao Liuyang and Chen Yin)
Han: Shi Jinglin (Past: Chen Yan and Luo Nan)
Jin: Chen Xinyi and Liu Zige
Li*: Fu Yuanhui.
Cui: Le Ying, Qiu Ziao and Shi Yang
He: Qiu Yuhan (Past: Liu Weijia)


*Li has been assisting Xu in coaching his swimmers because Xu is recovering from a brain surgery.