Summing up experience to make improvements and continuous improvement

  Our reporter Li Yuanfei

  Since the start of the 2020 National Swimming Championships and the Tokyo Olympics qualifying competition, the topic of "excellent performance in the preliminaries but missed the finals" has continued to ferment.

In the face of some athletes who had excellent preliminaries and even broke national and Asian records, but failed to make the final due to poor physical fitness tests, Zhou Jihong, chairman of the Chinese Swimming Association, responded through the "China Sports News".

She said that the current direction of competition reform will continue, but the basic physical training and competition system will be improved according to the characteristics of the project.

  Many famous players are on the physical test

  On the first day of the competition, Yu Hexin broke the national record with 21.79 in the men's 50-meter freestyle preliminaries and reached the Tokyo Olympics A standard. However, due to his basic physical fitness test, he failed to enter the current eight and eventually missed the final.

On the same day, in the women's 200m breaststroke preliminaries and women's 100m backstroke preliminaries, Yu Jingyao and Fu Yuanhui ranked first in the preliminaries of the two events, but they also missed the final because they had not passed the physical test.

  On the second day of the match, Wang Jian Jiahe increased her own Asian record by 1.1 seconds in the women's 1500m freestyle preliminaries with 15 minutes 45.59 seconds, but also missed the final due to basic physical fitness test results.

  On the third day of the competition, Hubei swimmer Sun Jiajun reached the Tokyo Olympics A standard in 51.81 seconds in the men’s 100-meter butterfly preliminaries. After Li Zhuhao, he became the second Chinese athlete to meet the competition standard in this event. The reason for not qualifying for the final is also that the basic physical fitness test results are not enough.

On this day, due to poor physical performance and missed the finals, Ye Shiwen, the London Olympic women's 400m individual medley champion.

  Why should physical fitness be linked to the competition

  What is the basic fitness test?

Why should it be linked to the athlete's performance?

  In February this year, the Competitive Sports Department of the State Sports General Administration issued the "Notice of the General Office of the General Administration of Sports on Further Strengthening Basic Physical Training and Supplementing Physical Fitness Shortcomings" (hereinafter referred to as the notice), stating that after entering the Tokyo Olympics preparation cycle, various national teams After strengthening basic physical training and replenishing physical shortcomings, initial results have been achieved. From the ability to improve and exert strength in the "decisive battle in Tokyo, the decisive battlefield", it is necessary to further unify thinking and continue to pay close attention to physical training.

For this reason, the notice clearly stated that each project must set basic physical fitness standards, and those who do not meet the standards shall not participate in the Olympic selection.

  Specifically for the National Swimming Championships, a two-day basic physical fitness test was conducted before the competition.

On the first day, the core strength of the torso, 30-meter sprint, pull-ups and vertical jump were tested. The next day was a 3000-meter run.

Among the top 16 preliminaries in the post-swimming competition, the top 8 of the basic physical fitness test results will enter the final.

This is why many famous players failed to enter the finals.

  Basic and special projects must be two-pronged

  In the heated discussion of public opinion, a view supported by most people is that the link between the basic physical fitness test and the athlete's competition performance is "one size fits all". The design is not based on the characteristics of each event and the specific ability requirements, resulting in a good physical fitness test. The embarrassing result of athletes may not necessarily have strong special skills.

  In response, Zhou Jihong said in response that if Chinese swimming wants to fully reach a higher level, it must be based and specialized.

The purpose of adding basic physical fitness tests in this national competition is to make up for the shortcomings of Chinese athletes and improve the competitiveness of Chinese swimmers in the world.

  "Yu Hexin's score is equivalent to last year's 11th in the world ranking. He has the absolute strength to enter the semi-finals of the World Series, but it does not guarantee that he will enter the finals." Zhou Jihong said, "Secondly, although both Yu Jingyao and Fu Yuanhui's results are both Reached the Olympic Games A standard, but there is a big gap compared with the world level. Although there are more athletes in China that can reach the A standard in the Olympic Games, the difficulty is that there will be Olympic medals or at least the finals in the competition. Achievements.” To this end, Zhou Jihong emphasized that this direction of competition reform will continue.

But she also said that the Chinese Swimming Association will earnestly summarize the physical training through this competition, and establish a more complete basic physical training and physical competition system that is compatible with swimming and closely integrates the special events.