A deep pool of talent

Editor's note: With the Olympic stage set, and golden glory beckoning, Chinese athletes have been going all-out to ensure it will be a medal-laden campaign at Paris 2024.

Led by Olympic champions and surging youngsters, China's ambitious swimming squad is all set to bring home a golden haul from Paris 2024.

With world records broken already, and season bests renewed aplenty in the buildup, the Olympic swimming competition at Paris La Defense Arena is guaranteed to be a fierce battle for supremacy between aquatic powers, such as the United States, Australia and Britain. Team China, however, is primed to spoil the party and make its presence felt in the pool.

Spearheading the charge will be China's "butterfly queen" Zhang Yufei and "breaststroke king" Qin Haiyang — respectively the reigning 200m butterfly Olympic champion and 200m breaststroke world record holder — who have emerged as the Chinese delegation's biggest gold medal hopes, and perhaps its most sought-after stars, with solid, consistent performances en route to the Games.

The four new world records set at Olympic trials in the US, Australia and Canada over the past two months, though, have underlined the mounting challenge for Chinese swimmers to continue their winning ways when the first heats session starts on July 27 in Paris.

Zhang and Qin will feel the pressure immediately, as they aim to get Team China off to a golden start on just the second night of the Games in the finals of women's 100m fly and men's 100m breaststroke, two sprint events leading up to their strongest disciplines in 200m, which will be contested on Aug 1 and July 31, respectively.

Rising to stardom at Tokyo 2020 as a young phenom, Zhang, who bagged four medals in Japan, including a silver in 100m fly and a gold in the women's 4x200m freestyle relay, will be pushed hard by the new generation of prodigies in the pool.

In 100m fly, 21-year-old American sprinter Gretchen Walsh has emerged as a strong favorite by clocking 55.18 sec at last month's US trails, setting a new world mark, while Canadian Summer McIntosh poses a legitimate threat to Zhang's 200m gold after logging a season-best time of 2:04.33 at her domestic trials in May, 1.24 seconds faster than Zhang's best of the past 12 months at the Asian Games in September.

Relatively unknown on his Olympic debut in Tokyo, Qin is motivated to further cement his dominance in breaststroke by chasing multiple golds at his second Games in Paris, after having reigned supreme at the world championships.

The 25-year-old took the swimming world by storm a year ago, when he made history at the 2023 worlds in Fukuoka, Japan, by becoming the first man to sweep all three breaststroke golds, in 50, 100 and 200m, clocking 2:05.48 in the final to break British star Adam Peaty's 200m world record.

China's new "Aquaman", as he is nicknamed by his fans, still has five-time Olympic medalist Peaty to beat, as the Briton has come back strong from mental health issues he suffered in 2022 to pick up his scintillating pace.

Thanks to a breakout 2023 season, Qin was awarded the Male Swimmer of the Year by the World Aquatics in October — the first Chinese to receive the honor.

"My confidence comes from my strength, which is built through hard training one day after another," said Qin, who didn't qualify for the 200m semifinals in Tokyo. "As long as I am healthy enough, I'm always confident that I can conquer the final, and biggest, challenge of my career."

Peaty, a back-to-back 100m Olympic champion and world record holder in the event, welcomes the challenge.

"What he's done is very, very impressive," he told BBC Sport. "It excites me, because if it's too easy, it's almost not worth winning, and, if it's one person winning all the time, it can become stale. Sport needs rivalries in order to thrive. So, I accept that challenge."

Sharing the spotlight with Qin is teen sensation Pan Zhanle, a freestyle sprinter who refreshed the 100m world record by clocking 46.80 in his leadoff leg of the 4x100m free relay at the Doha worlds in February.

Powered by Pan, Team China won both men's free relays and the mixed 4x100m free relay in Doha. Combined with victory in the women's 4x200m free relay, it was the country's best collective result in relays at the long-course worlds.

However, the reigning 100m world champion remains modest for his goals at his Olympic debut, even having consistently cracked the 47-second mark — a measurement of elite sprinters — in the 100m race.

"It will be my first time participating in the Olympics. My main goal is to relax and not feel too much pressure. I'm not concerned about the results for now; I just want to give it my all," Pan said.

With veterans such as men's 200m individual medley defending champion Wang Shun, and backstroke star Xu Jiayu feeling rejuvenated, Team China is expected to reap more medals in Paris than it did three years ago in Tokyo.

On the women's side, distance freestyler Li Bingjie and breaststroke sprinter Tang Qianting, who set the season-best mark in the 100m of 1:04.39 at the Olympic trials in April, have also emerged serious medal contenders.

Having established its world-class credentials in a variety of individual and relay events, the Chinese swimming team is now primed to do better in the French capital than its six-medal finish, including three golds, at the last Olympics.

sunxiaochen@chinadaily.com.cn