Chinanews.com, Beijing, January 22, title: Visiting the Chinese Disabled Swimming Team Training: Young players look forward to hitting the Olympics
Author Hao Lingyu
Stepping into the swimming pool of the China Disabled Sports Management Center, the rhythmic sound of "popping" immediately attracts people's attention to the swimming pool.
In the swimming pool, a one-armed athlete draws a large arc with his arm, slaps the water surface, and paddles forward.
This is Wu Hongliang, an athlete of the Chinese Disabled Swimming Team, training in the swimming pool.
During the Spring Festival this year, the Chinese Disabled Swimming Team is training here to prepare for various international competitions in 2023 and strive to qualify for the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games.
Swimming and track and field are listed as the foundation of competitive sports.
The Chinese Paralympic delegation has won both the gold medal list and the medal list of the Paralympic Games for five consecutive times. Among them, the swimming event is the "big winner" of gold medals.
At the Tokyo Paralympic Games, the swimming team won 19 golds, 19 silvers and 18 bronzes, a total of 56 medals, becoming the first place in the double list of gold medals and medals in this event. At the same time, it broke more than 10 world records and achieved good results in both the quantity and quality of medals. score.
For several young players who are training here, the past performance of the swimming team is both pressure and motivation.
Winning the qualifiers, participating in the Paralympic Games and hitting the gold medal is the goal of all training athletes, and Wu Hongliang is one of the more urgent ones.
Wu Hongliang from Guizhou had previously won the men's S8 100-meter butterfly gold medal at the Shaanxi National Paralympic Games. He has accumulated more than 80 medals in his more than ten years of swimming practice.
From the city team to the provincial team, he has been training continuously, making progress step by step, and was finally selected by the national team to participate in this training camp.
"Learning to swim is difficult at the beginning, but every time I see others swimming ahead, I will be very unconvinced, and I want to be the fastest person."
For the upcoming World Paralympic Swimming Series, Wu Hongliang seems very confident.
He said that the coaching team and the security team have made full preparations to provide assistance to the athletes.
I will complete training and grading in international competitions, and strive to achieve good results in the Hangzhou Asian Para Games.
Lu Yanlin, from Zhangzhou, Fujian, is 16 years old this year and is the youngest swimmer participating in this training camp.
She once won three silvers and three bronzes at the Shaanxi National Paralympic Games. After coming to the national team to participate in the training camp, she had new requirements for herself: "It's a pity that I didn't get the first place in the previous competition. I think I can do it again in the training camp." Work harder, and be serious when you should be serious.”
Athlete Guo Jincheng is doing strength training Photo by Dong Zeyu
For her first time to participate in the national team training camp, she was deeply impressed by the movement correction and tactical guidance of the coaching system, the improvement of the competition level, and the competitive level of the opponents.
"It is the highest honor for our athletes to enter the national team. I am very happy and especially cherish this opportunity."
Lu Yanlin said that she likes swimming very much, so she is full of envy for the older athletes around her: "I see many athletes who are older than me, and they have been swimming for a long time. I am very envious of them (being able to participate in competitions all the time). can do."
Guo Jincheng, born in 2001, had previously participated in training at the Sports Management Center.
He admitted that he was somewhat regretful when he learned that he would not be able to celebrate the New Year with his family this year, but he knew that he would not be able to maintain his competitive state without training.
"People feel relaxed after entering the pool, so they don't think too much."
Athletes with different characteristics and personalities pose different challenges to the coaching team.
For Liu Tao, the coach of the swimming team who has more than ten years of experience in coaching disabled swimming, it is very happy to see young athletes training hard.
He said that many disabled people feel introverted or inferior when they start to play sports, but after a period of physical training, the athletes will have great changes from physiology to psychology, which will also be of great help to their lives.
Gao Wei, deputy director of the competition and training department of the China Disabled Sports Management Center, said that the training time is relatively short this time, so young players will not be required to immediately regain their competitive status for participating in the National Paralympic Games. It feels like to achieve the "small goals" first.
"Disabled athletes have their own characteristics. This month is a running-in period for us and new players to get to know each other. Next, we will comprehensively consider athletes' different personalities, different degrees of disabilities, and different psychological resistance to stress, and formulate a case for each individual. Appropriate training plan." Gao Wei said.
When I left the swimming pool, the morning training was over.
Lu Yanlin, who left the venue, smiled and waved to the reporter, reminding everyone that a group of young athletes had begun to pursue their Olympic dreams during the reunion of the Spring Festival.
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