The first post after 3 years

There have been a lot to happen in three years in both swimming and athletics for chinese athletes. Even though I haven't been writing anything for past three years, my daily dose of sports news from China is still part of my life...

Swimming:
1. Sun Yang's spiral
Sun Yang has been a flagship for brand new "Chinese swimming" after a series of doping events in 1990s. After he became the first gold medalist in Chinese male swimmer, his career has been spiced up with numerous herbs and spices. After his success in 2012 Olympics, he has been secretly accused by his teammates of his hostility towards his teammates. Even though this accusation has not been substantiated in the media, his current training status may have explained: he seems to train alone with his own team without other swimmers. Minor out-of-competition issues include his love affair and driving without a licence in 2013. He still managed to win three world titles in 2013 and two Asian Games titles in 2014. However, it was his Asian Games titles which were controversial that he was reported to serve a secret 3-month ban from doping. This definitely made the international swimming community feel suspicious of the way Chinese swimming association was handling his case. He, himself, also quickly got past his doping and won 2 more world titles in 2015 with new controversies. He was reported to be in a fight with a Brazilian female swimmer and pulled out from 1500m free at the last minute. There was also news quoting that before the race, he was seen to be very frustrated with a couple of Chinese officials in the changing room. All these behaviors have made him a bad name and he got a * behind him whenever he was mentioned in Swimvortex.

2. Rise of Ning Zetao
I first spotted this name in 2008-2009 but never thought too much about him when I remember he was a finalist in 200m IM at Chinese National Games in 2009. Then he swum a 49s in 2010 or 2011 and I noticed later he was banned due to Clenbuterol. After his success in 2014 Asian Games and swum a couples of 47s, his doping past was inevitably dug up like President election campaign. He later explained that during the time he was still a junior member in Navy, his meals solely rely on the food supplied by the team canteen and he supplemented his meals secretly by adding luncheon meats bought from the local shops. In Kazan Worlds last year, he became the first Asian male to win gold in sprinting freestyle event. But his name, similar to Sun Yang, was tainted with an * in Swimvortex reports. In addition to his success, his good East Asian look gains him even more fame and also pressure on him. Like the Chinese nationals this year, tickets are sell-out due to his presence but his IBS has kept him from action after a 47.96s in semis.      

3. Rise of Chinese male swimmers
The quality of Chinese male swimmers are improving over the last decade. It is hard to believe that they only produce their first sub-50s swimmer in 100m free back in 2005 and now, they have 1 sub-48s and a couple of sub-49s swimmers. On the other hand, Zhejiang has been contributing a lot in the Chinese male swimming. Their first wave was Yu Cheng and Wu Peng in early 2000s. Yu and Wu lowered men's 1500m free to 15:15 level in 2001. Then Yu further lowered to 15:10. Then it came to Beijing's Zhang Lin and Sun Yang (also from Zhejiang) who brought to the current level. Wu Peng has been multiple medalist in 200m fly at worlds although he failed to win a single Olympic medal. He also helped improve the national record from 1:58 to 1:54. Then it came Xu Jiayu and Li Zhuhao, both Zhejiang swimmers, who has been swimming world class times in recent years. Worth to mention for contributions are Beijing's Chen Zuo together with Zhang Lin and Guangdong's Zhou Jiawei. Chen is the ice-breaker in 100m free. He dipped below 50s in 2005 and then 49s in 2008. While his improving pace did not keep up with the fast pace in the international swimming, he has been a consistent performer from 2001 to 2013. Zhang Lin is another milestone for Chinese swimming when he is the first world record holder (800m free in 2009 Rome) and first Olympic medalist (400m free in 2008) for Chinese male swimmer. Before him, the best result is Jiang Chengji's 4th (both in 50m free and 100m fly) in 1996 Atlanta. His career has been cut short due to his lung problem that compromises his endurance. Zhou Jiawei, won his first national title in 100m fly back in 2000, but did not make the Olympic team. He also did not swim in the next 2 editions until  London, where he got to swim his first and also his last Olympics. Like Chen on the record, he is the first Chinese male who dipped below 53s and then below 52s. At 33, he still swam a 52.44s recently in Chinese nationals (3rd) where he wanted to qualify for one more Olympics (but failed).
 
4. Swan songs for Jiao Liuyang and Liu Zige
Since 2008, Jiao and Liu have been the butterfly duo who has taken turns to win most of the major titles/medals in women's 200m fly: 2008 Olympic gold and silver; 2009 Worlds silver; 2011 Worlds gold; 2012 Olympic gold and 2013 Worlds gold. Their monopoly is over and now they both are facing different health problems. Jiao has been battling gastric problem since 2012 while Liu has her nagging problem in shoulders. Jiao's recovery is slow but never officially announced her retirement while Liu swam Olympic trial recently and finished 5th in 2:08, a decent time, but was not fast enough to qualify. She was upset and cried after she failed to qualify for her third Olympics.
  
4. Suspicion
There are more * on Chinese swimmers, China has attempted to clean up their sports after doping scandal in 1990s. However, there have been consistent doping cases not only on the provincial swimmers but also national team swimmers. This include Wu Yanyan (former 200m IM world record holder), Ouyang Kunpeng (former top male backstroke swimmer), Li Zhesi (freestyle leg in 4x100m medley gold medal team in 2009 Worlds), Sun Yang (Olympic champion) and Ning Zetao (World champion). Ning is a little different from the rest that he was caught way before he swam fast times. Lately, 2 more from last year and 3 more from this year were caught. Wang Lizhuo and An Jiaobao are the 2 who were caught last year on Clenbuterol and got away with warnings and fines. This infuriates the international swimming community and their recent showing in Nationals, breaking records and qualifying for Olympics did not help the situation. Furthermore, the 3 Hunan swimmers that have been reported doping could also be the top national swimmers, if I am not wrong. Their absence in Nationals has deepened my suspicion for these three swimmers with surnames starting with Li, Huang and Yang. One of the Swimvortex comments mentioned Zhejiang's swimmers are believed to be cleanest and the worst are those from central provinces and Liaoning. I totally agree and Shanghai has also been on clean record after 2000 except for one Clenbuterol case in 2005.    

Athletics:
1. Breakthroughs in sprinting
As one of the most fascinating events on track, Chinese has been hoping for their first sub-10 sprinter. It finally happened last year when Su Bingtian ran 9.99s. More convincing is that he ran once in US and once in Worlds. Their breakthrough in sprinting is unexpected, provided that their national record before 2013 was 10.16s. In 2013, Zhang Peimeng was first to take off, running 10.0s couple of times. This also inspired Su to level off. The highlight in 2013 was Zhang who ran 10s flat in Worlds semis. In 2014, their times were not as fast but still on par. Su has been a more consistent one when he was came 4th in 60m at World Indoors. The highlight was 37.99s Asian record win in 4x100m at Asian Games. 2015 was a fruitful year for Su where he is the first sub-10s for East Asian and was able to repeat the feat in Worlds when Beijing was the host. Their 4x100m team won a history silver in the meet and set another Asian record 37.92s in the heats. In 2016, his form has been better and already tied Asian 60m record at 6.50s in recent World Indoors. His younger team mate, Xie Zhenye, who is more a 200m specialist, also ran 6.53s in the final.  

2. Their results are more consistent and reliable
Their walking team has been very consistent in the last few years when both male and female walkers medaled in major competitions. Liu Hong, last year, has been fruitful one that she took the world record and world champion. This year, good news was that she could be the bronze medalist in 2012 Olympics where she finished 4th in 2008 and 2012, after russian walker's medal was stripped due to doping. Their female throwers are always among the consistent ones when they have been top 8 finishers in Worlds.

3. Steady improvements in men
Men's long jump is one of the first to mention. China has been producing 8m jumpers since 1990s but not many can make it to the podium until 2014 World indoors where Li Jinzhe won silver. This has sparked a series of great performances in Chinese jumpers when Wang Jianan, still a junior, won bronze in 2015 Worlds and Huang Changzhou won bronze in 2016 World indoors. They have formed a force in long jump at world level. Other jumping events are also worth to mention including Zhang Guowei's high jump (silver in Worlds last year), Xue Changrui's pole vault, Dong Bin's triple jump (gold in World indoors and 17.41m Asian record this year). There was a breakthrough in men's javelin in 2014 when Zhao Qinggang threw a stunning 89.15m, Asian record. Since then, he was plagued with injuries.

4. Their results seem to be more believable nowadays but you never know
The results produced by Chinese athletes in athletics seem to be more accepting in general by international community partly because of their increased international exposure. The major doping cases for national athletes recently including Lu Huihui and Zhang Wenxiu. Lu served her ban and rose to silver medalist in last year Worlds in women's javelin. Zhang was found positive after Asian Games in 2014 but later proved that the banned substance was due to food contamination and her ban was lifted in 2015. She also won a silver in 2015 Worlds. Early this year, doping case of Ma's army in 1990s was finally exposed and the runners confirmed their doping in a letter written to the author who wrote a book about Ma's army back in 1995 with their signatures. The letter was deemed to be too sensitive at the time of publish and was removed from the book. It was only exposed later last year that people got to know such letter was written. My take for Wang Junxia was that she was a talented runner and got to a very high level after doping and achieved a lot in single year. She left Ma for the other coach, Mao Dezhen in 1995 and trained for 1996 Olympics. I think she stopped doping by the time she left Ma but the foundation she had built previously was still in her. That could explain why she still  managed to win a gold and a silver in 1996 Games but the times she ran were way too slow compared to her world record performances. Currently, World athletics world is in a turmoil on doping where Russia is the main character. If China does increase their doping cases, more focus will be on them.

5. Veterans retirement and comeback
Liu Xiang's retirement is one of the highlights in the last 3 years. He has achieved so much and so consistently over the last decade from 2001 to 2012. He has gained so much respect from his opponents. The domestic comments on him are a little harsh that they do not realize what he has achieved is so unprecedented in China. I also understand that his falls both happened in Olympics, which were really unfortunate. A must mention for his comeback is Han Yucheng, who has qualified Olympics at 38. Noticeably, he qualifies for one of the most grueling events in athletics, 50km walk. He is definitely the oldest Chinese male athletics representative (Li Meisu should be oldest female). Good luck to him and wishing him a good placing in the Olympics!!