Zhang Yufei and Qin Haiyang put on a dominating performance at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, giving the nation quite the pedigree ahead of next year’s Olympic Games.
After having one of its most successful World Aquatics Championships in the pool in July, the Chinese national swim team put on an impressive show in front of its home fans at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, winning 28 gold medals, and putting up some of the fastest times in the entire world.
The Chinese national team has been strong in recent years, but with the core group of Zhang Yufei, Qin Haiyang, and Wang Shun, as well as rising star Pan Zhanle and established veterans Li Bingjie and Ye Shiwen, this is perhaps China’s best national team its ever had ahead of the 2024 Olympics. China’s most successful Olympics in the pool happened in 2012 with 10 total medals, and that total could be surpassed next year in Paris if the team performs similar to what they did in Hangzhou.
The Korean team also had one of its most successful showings at the Asian Games, winning its first ever relay gold medal with 22 medals in total, while Hong Kong, China picked up its first ever individual gold. Chinese Taipei, Singapore, Kazakhstan, and Vietnam also picked up medals in China last week.
Below are some of the biggest storylines that came out from the Games.
Wang Shun Makes a Statement
Reigning Olympic champion Wang Shun had one of the top swims of the meet when he broke the Asian record in the 200m IM at 1:54.62, moving himself to number three on the all-time list. The time was quicker than Leon Marchand’s gold medal winning time at the last two World Championships and it was his first time under 1:55 which only three other men in history have done. Since winning the Olympic gold two years ago, Wang was 15th at Worlds in 2022 and 11th in 2023, but this 1:54 was a huge statement swim from the 29-year-old, one that he drew attention to on Weibo afterwards.
“I said I'll let the flag rise (in) my hometown and I did it,” Wang said. “For me, breaking my own Asian record is more precious than the gold itself. Age is just a number. To all those people who said I'm done, are you done now?”
Wang has put himself in position for a showdown with the two-time World champ Marchand in his home nation next year, as Wang is looking to be just the third man to successfully repeat in the 200m IM at the Olympics joining the likes of Tamas Darnyi (1988, 1992) and Michael Phelps (2004 - 2016).
Siobhan Haughey Breaks Asian Record
Siobhan Haughey won the first gold medal for Hong Kong, China ever at the Asian Games by virtue of her continental record in the 100m freestyle (52.17) and her Games record in the 200m (1:54.12). Haughey, 25, has been an international force in the 100m and 200m freestyle events, winning silvers in both at the last Olympics in Tokyo. At the Asian Games, she was able to secure the first ever gold medal for her country, putting herself seventh all-time in the 100m and was just two tenths off her own Asian record in the 200m.
Haughey’s time in the 100m was just 0.01 off of Mollie O’Callaghan’s gold medal winning time from the World Championships where Haughey won the silver. Haughey has still yet to win an individual gold medal at the global level as this was her first Worlds medal this year. She has shown no signs of slowing down as she continues to make history for Hong Kong, China. This swim in Hangzhou proved Haughey is definitely one of the favorites for a gold medal in Paris next year.
Zhang Yufei, Pan Zhanle swim quicker than Worlds gold
Two months after winning 100m butterfly gold at the World Championships, Zhang Yufei swam a dominating 55.86 in Hangzhou, which is faster than her 56.12 from Fukuoka and her fastest time since winning Olympic silver two years ago. This was one of five gold medals for the 25-year-old, adding to her nine golds at the Summer Universiade in Chengdu this year as well as her five medals from the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka.
Zhang also returned to the 200m butterfly, the event she won in Tokyo at the Olympics and also the event she scratched in Fukuoka to focus on the mixed relay. Her time in the 200m (2:05.57) would have won the bronze medal at Worlds, and whether we will see Zhang in the 200m moving forward remains to be seen. But her 100m speed proved she is still the top butterfly swimmer in the world at the moment.
Pan Zhanle had a very impressive showing in the 100m freestyle, rattling David Popovici’s world record from last year with a 46.97 to become the fifth man inside 47 seconds and the first to break that barrier this year. Pan was fourth at the last two World Championships in the 100m freestyle, missing the podium by just 0.01 this year, but his 46 puts him with a target on his back heading into the Olympics. Even though Kyle Chalmers and the aforementioned Popovici have won the last two World titles, Pan has the upperhand at the moment - it is just a matter of if Pan, who turned 19 in August, can replicate that swim against the best in the world in 2024. Pan has raced at the biggest level, but doesn’t have the big win yet. This 100m swim, as well as his silver in the 200m (1:45.28), give him the pedigree to challenge the best of the best for next year.
Korea starting a freestyle monopoly
The Korean men were slated to have a big week in the freestyle races, and they delivered, winning four of the six men’s freestyle events plus the 4x200m relay. Amongst the five freestyle gold medals, four of them were national records, including Ji Yu-chan’s 50m (21.72) Hwang Sun-woo’s 200m (1:44.40), and Kim Woo-min’s 800m (7:46.03). Kim also won the 400m freestyle with a 3:44.36, just off his 3:43.92 from the World Championships and Park Tae-hwan’s 3:41.53 national record.
The 4x200m was a truly historic win for the Koreans as it was their first relay gold medal at the Asian Games and it was the first time neither China or Japan won a relay gold medal since 1958. Korea’s team of Yang Jae-hoon (1:46.83), Lee Ho-joon (1:45.36), Kim (1:44.50), and Hwang (1:45.04) set the Asian record at 7:01.73 which was faster than Australia’s 7:02 that won bronze at the World Championships in July. Yang dropped his best time from 1:48 to 1:46 on the lead-off leg while Kim and Hwang each split faster than they did at the World Championships where they finished sixth.
Hwang is the youngest of the bunch at 20, while Lee is the oldest at 22, giving this group a lot of potential to improve on moving forward. They were sixth at the World Championships, but with two Worlds finalists in the individual 200m, plus the 400m, 800m gold medalist from Hangzhou, and this is a strong core group in Korea changing the game in the aquatics venue. The secret is out about Korean swimming, so will they be able to put together the right race when it matters next year?
Yu Yiting makes 200m IM race much more crowded
Just a few weeks removed from her 18th birthday, Yu Yiting won the IM double in Hangzhou, most notably swimming a 2:07.75 in the 200m, putting her fourth in the world for 2023 and tenth on the all-time list. Yu, who won the bronze at the 2023 Worlds and was fifth at the last Olympics, is proving to be a formidable challenger ahead of next year’s Olympics alongside the likes of reigning World champ Kate Douglass, Olympic silver medalist Alex Walsh, and backstroke champion Kaylee McKeown. Add in Canada’s Summer McIntosh, who won the 400m IM at Worlds and had the fastest time in the world for 2023, and the women’s 200m IM has no weak spots.
Yu also took out the 400m IM at 4:35.44 in a battle with Japan’s Ageha Tanigawa (4:35.65). Yu swam this at the World Championships but finished out of the final in 11th. China has had a lot of success in the women’s IM events, and Yu could be the next great one for the nation.
Xu Jiayu strengthens China’s relays
28-year-old Xu Jiayu looked like the Xu Jiayu of old this week in Hangzhou when he took the backstroke hat trick, scoring a national record in the 50m (24.38), a Games record in the 100m (52.23), and a third gold in the 200m (1:55.37). On relays, Xu swam 51.91 on the mixed and 52.05 on the men’s medley on the final night, which were the second and third fastest times of his career as Xu hadn’t broken 52 seconds since 2017.
Xu’s quick lead-off legs paved the way for Asian records in both medley relays - a 3:27.01 in the men’s to swim quicker than the United States’s gold medal (3:27.20) from Fukuoka, and a 3:37.73 in the mixed, just two tenths off of Great Britain’s 3:37.58 from the Tokyo Olympics.
With less than a year until the Paris Olympics, the Chinese are becoming heavy favorites in the men’s and mixed medley relays. With breaststroke champion Qin Haiyang and now the number one 100m freestyler in the world in Pan Zhanle, China has the pieces to take on the Americans who have never lost the men’s medley relay at the Olympics. China has also never won a men’s swimming relay at the Olympics as there’s a lot of excitement being generated in the nation about the possibility of something special happening on the final night of swimming in the French capital.
For the mixed event, China dominated the World Championships with the likes of Xu and Qin on the front end plus World champion Zhang Yufei on the butterfly. In Hangzhou last week, 2022 World 200m champion Yang Junxuan slotted in for the freestyle leg, splitting a 52.52 on the anchor, putting the rest of the world on notice.
China held the world record in the mixed medley relay in the lead-up to the Tokyo Olympics in which they won silver in the Olympic debut two years ago. Ahead of next year, the Chinese remain the gold medal favorites in Paris with not much of a weak leg, and this week proved it will take a monstrous effort across four swimmers to take down the Chinese.