The nation of China is coming off of a 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games which saw their swimming team place 4th in the overall medal table, claiming 6 total medals, half of them gold.
In contrast, at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, China placed 7th overall and reaped just 1 gold.
Here in Tokyo, 23-year-old Zhang Yufei proved to be a big contributor to the overall team haul. Zhang snagged 200m fly gold, 100m fly silver and was an integral leg on the women’s gold medal-winning 800m free relay. The squad also set a World Record en route to topping the podium.
Zhang’s compatriot Wang Shun struck gold in the men’s 200m IM while Li Bingjie produced a bronze medal-worthy performance in the 400m free with an Asian Record to boot. The mixed medley relay also raced its way to silver medal status.
One potential explanation for the surge in swimming prowess at the Olympic level stems from an unlikely place, that of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).
According to ABC News, Zhang was among the Chinese athletes who refined their aquatic techniques not in a pool, but in a wind tunnel that is part of the CASC’s missile guidance system.
“Through data analysis, we helped athletes formulate training programs scientifically and provided scientific support to improve the performance,” the CASC said.
“The system can obtain sports information such as athletes’ posture, speed, position, angular velocity, acceleration, et cetera during training.
“The low-speed wind tunnel laboratory … successfully developed a three-dimensional force measurement platform to study the aerodynamic force of different athletes and the influence of different formation combinations on aerodynamic resistance.”
Essentially, the simulation enabled scientists to capture the precise drag coefficient produced by differing movements and body positions by the swimmers in the wind tunnel. These calculations were then used as data points to refine the swimmer’s technique unique to his or her individual body shape.
Reducing drag while conserving energy is nothing new in swimming, as the concept of limiting one’s resistance in the water has been studied time and time again. Decreasing the drag coefficient even minutely can potentially make the difference between getting one’s hand on the wall first and settling for second place.
Now that technology is advancing in other sectors, however, we can see the crossover benefits of applying these advances to keep challenging that we think is possible in sport.
90% or more, of those 1.4 billion tho don’t have access to pools.. never mind coaching. I’m not decided on they cheated or they didnt. But saying that if there were a billion swimmers they probably would have a large advantage
China is far richer than that lol. Even 2nd tier cities are very modern now
So, no disrespect to the other discussions going on here, but my reaction to this is more academic in nature. When you go through your undergrad program in aerospace engineering, you learn that, for wind tunnel testing to be valid, you have to create the setup in a way that matches both Reynold’s and Mach numbers. At high speeds, with small aircraft models, they often change the characteristics of the air (fluid) in the wind tunnel by using something like supercooled nitrogen.
To simulate water using a wind tunnel, the density is about 1000 times that of air, so you’d have to either change the fluid, or change the size of the model (a person sized swimmer model) by about… Read more »
Zhang Yufei‘s 200 fly was the swim of the Olympics in my opinion, other world records notwithstanding. She showed that it should be possible for someone to break the “super suited” record in the women’s 200 fly that many have regarded as unbreakable.
China swimming is a bit dead & waiting for new coaches . Also a combination of rising living standards where kids don’t have to swim .
However Space is on a Long March to Mars . Serious people will read up on it & won’t be shocked when China has the only Space Station in 2024. The rest will just be like’ They stole our secrets ‘even tho.its USSR technology from Mir .1986.
When americans are complaining that China is stealing US space technology, they are not complaining the most Universities in US made SAT scores to be optional in college admission process this year. And University of California entirely got rid of SAT as an entrance requiement, permenently, in the name of equity. Their argument is laughable, saying that Standarnd test is not fair, it create unfair advantage for the rich. How can you compete on a global stage when your college cannot admit students on a merit based system. Should we choose Olympians based on family income?
Thanks for the reply. Lots to think about with that development .
SAT scores are a pretty poor indication of how well someone is going to in college, and they absolutely do benefit the wealthy who can pay to take the test over and over again, as well as pay to be trained for the test
You can take SAT over and over again for free if you are really poor, and sending scores for free, waiving application fees. There are also tons of free prep classes.
to me the country that exceeded expectations in the total medal count was Great Britain. Has their funding been greatly increased in the last 10-15 years? Its not always doping that gets results but funding your athletes to train full time doesn’t hurt.
The country has long taken a very scientific approach to sports success. I can remember pre-Beijing stories of Chinese sport scientists researching the physical characteristics off elite athletes in different sports, putting it into a database, then steer athletic children into specific sports based on how closely they or their parents matched the global physical ideal for that sport. Not surprised to see them continue to use that kind of very methodical approach to try to find improvements in other ways.
There’s a great story about Charlie Francis (RIP), who was the infamous Ben Jonson’s coach.
Charlie was, in the late ’70’s part of a team of Canadian coaches who went to what was then East Germany (DDR) to learn all about their scientific coaching methods. The team was taken to swimming pools, weight rooms, tracks, etc. and all the while, they were regaled with stories of lactate testing, measuring maximum aerobic capacity and all manner of other, at the time, revolutionary ideas.
Legend has it that Charlie came back to one of those tracks or pools or weight rooms after the delegation had left with a gym bag full of Johnny Walker. Took the bag to the head coach,… Read more »
That is super cool stuff great innovation from them
Congratulations on raising your Social Credit score as recognized by the Chinese Communist Party.
Wut