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Track and field, swimming and aquatics are the three basic events in the Olympic family. They are the three events with the most gold medals and the most attention in the Olympics. At the Paris Olympics, the Chinese sports delegation won 1 gold in the track and field event, 2 golds in the swimming event, and 2 golds in the aquatics event. Compared with the Tokyo Olympics, the number of gold medals in the three basic events has decreased, but there are also remarkable points. The gold medals in many events are very high. However, the gold medal points in the three events are not wide, especially in track and field and aquatics, which are still concentrated on their traditional advantage events.

Athletics: Focus on perfect inheritance

The Chinese sports delegation played to its best in traditional advantageous events, especially race walking and throwing. Among them, although Liu Hong and Gong Lijiao, "five-time veterans", failed to win medals in the Paris Olympics, their spirits are admirable. In particular, when Liu Hong was "looped" by Yang Jiayu, she smiled and watched Yang Jiayu leave and cheered for her, realizing the perfect inheritance of the Chinese race walking team, which was very touching. Yang Jiayu lived up to expectations and rushed out of the first group to lead alone at the beginning. At the last moment, she withstood the pressure from Perez and won the championship in one fell swoop, winning the only gold medal for the Chinese track and field team in this Olympics.

Feng Bin, who won the silver medal in discus, was a late bloomer. After three Olympic Games, she finally reaped the rewards at the age of 30, tying the best Olympic result for Chinese women's discus. Zhao Jie, 21, competed in her first Olympics. When veteran Wang Zheng, runner-up in the previous Olympics, failed to qualify for the final due to poor performance, she withstood the pressure and threw 74.27 meters in the second throw in the final, winning the bronze medal in the women's hammer throw. Gong Lijiao was in mediocre form due to a back injury, while Song Jiayuan, who participated in her second Olympics, won the bronze medal in the women's shot put with a score of 19.32 meters, continuing the Chinese team's competitiveness in this event.

Swimming: The highest number of medals ever

2 gold, 3 silver and 7 bronze medals are the results of the Chinese swimming team's performance in the Paris Olympics. Although the number of gold medals is not as high as that of the Tokyo Olympics, 12 medals is the most in the history of the Olympics. The gold content of these two gold medals is also very high.

In the relay events that best reflect a country's overall swimming strength, the Chinese team stood on the podium in five events, winning a total of 1 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze medals. The remaining two events without medals were also ranked fourth, which is rare in all previous Olympic Games.

Among the 35 individual events, except for the women's 400m individual medley, Chinese teams participated in the other 34 events, and Chinese athletes entered the finals in 22 of them.

The two gold medals are of great value. Pan Zhanle's 100m freestyle is the most watched event in the swimming pool, just like the 100m in track and field. The champion of this event has long been monopolized by European and American countries. Pan Zhanle's outstanding performance not only allowed a Chinese to stand on the highest podium of the 100m freestyle, but also created a new world record.

Since its inception, the men's 4×100m medley relay has been dominated by the US team. This event requires top athletes in all four events to win the championship, and is a huge test of a country's overall swimming strength. After years of development, we have three of the four swimming styles on the Olympic and World Championships podium, leaving only the men's butterfly stroke as a weak event. The Chinese swimming team broke the 40-year monopoly of the United States, which amazed the world swimming community.

In the Olympic swimming medal table, the United States team won 8 gold medals and 23 medals, and the Australian team won 7 gold medals and 18 medals, ranking first and second in the medal table, and 13 teams won gold medals. The world swimming world has now entered an era of heroes rising together. The Chinese swimming team went from Tokyo to Paris, experienced setbacks and depression in Budapest, and then broke out in the Fukuoka World Championships, from the full blossoming of the Asian Games to the best of the newcomers in the Doha World Championships, and finally handed in a heavy answer sheet in Paris. They are a force that cannot be ignored in the world swimming world.

On the water: Kayaking continues to dominate

Of the five water sports, the best performance was naturally from the Chinese canoeing team. The two gold medals won by the water team all came from canoeing, namely the men's double canoe 500m and the women's double canoe 500m. The men's double canoe 500m has achieved a long-distance inheritance. In 2004 and 2008, China won the gold medal in this event. Subsequently, in the three cycles of London, Rio and Tokyo, the men's double canoe 500m was replaced by the 1000m. It was not until the Paris Olympics that the men's double canoe 500m was re-entered into the Olympics. Liu Hao/Ji Bowen won the gold medal and maintained their advantage in this event.

Since the women's double rowing 500m entered the Olympics, China has won all the gold medals. Since Xu Shixiao and Sun Mengya partnered up, they have remained undefeated in the world competitions. If we can cultivate reserve talents and maintain China's advantage in this event, women's rowing will become the pioneer of the water army like men's rowing.

Sailing faced great difficulties in the Paris Olympics. The event that won the championship in the Tokyo Olympics was replaced, leaving us with only two and a half years to prepare. In the end, Yan Zheng won the fifth place in women's hydrofoil windsurfing. In another new event, hydrofoil kiteboarding, Huang Qibin, who just turned 18, entered the medal round. This time, we were able to qualify for 9 out of 10 events, which has created a record of the most Olympic qualifications in foreign Olympics, reflecting the overall improvement of China's sailing and windsurfing level.

Although only Yang Siqi participated in the surfing event, it attracted great attention from the world surfing community. She entered the top 16 in the competition, achieving a historic breakthrough for China in this event. Yang Siqi was born in Huili City, Liangshan, Sichuan. Before she started surfing at the age of 9, she had never seen the sea. After unremitting efforts, Yang Siqi got a ticket to the Paris Olympics at the beginning of this year, which is also China's first Olympic surfing seat. In Yang Siqi's first Olympic Games, she encountered Tahiti, a venue famous for its strong winds and rough waves. From her brave attempt at the first appearance on the field, to her steady and steady second round, to her daring and fighting in the third round, she was knocked down by the surging waves again and again, but she resolutely challenged the huge waves again and again. With her love for surfing and her unremitting pursuit of her dreams, Yang Siqi not only wrote a historic chapter for China's surfing sport, but also set an example for young athletes.

Compared with the one gold and two bronze medals in the previous event, the rowing team did not win any medals this time, and the team is facing many problems such as aging personnel. Quan Xin entered the finals in the slalom event, but did not enter the finals in other events.

Image source: Xinhua News Agency, China Sports Pictures

Source: China Sports Daily

Process Editor: U022