A total of 13 students from the sports training major at Shenzhen University (SZU), including Yang Junxuan, Zheng Muyan, Yu Liyan and others, bagged 11 medals in the 2020 Chinese National Swimming Championship held between September 26 and October 2. The championship is also one of the qualifying events of the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games.

The SZU athletes won four gold medals in the competitions of women’s 100m freestyle, women’s 200m freestyle, women’s 200m breaststroke, and 4x100m mixed medley relay; two silver medals in the competitions of women’s 200m butterfly and 4x100 mixed medley relay; and five bronze medals in the competitions of women’s 1,500m freestyle, men’s 100m backstroke, women’s 200m breaststroke, women’s 100m breaststroke, and men’s 1,500m freestyle.

Among the 13 students, five of them met the A-level qualifying standard of Olympic Games while another five students met the B-level standard.

SZU students Yang Junxuan, Xu Jiayu, Yan Zibei and Zhang Yufei, topped the 4x100 mixed medley relay race and broke the world record set by U.S. swimmers on October 1, China’s National Day. Yang also won gold medals in the women’s 100m and 200m freestyle races and met the Olympics A-level standard in both events.

This August, the General Administration of Sports and the Ministry of Education issued guidelines on the integration of professional sports training and school education and the development of students’ physicality, aiming to promote the construction of varsity teams at universities as the talent backup for professional sports teams at provincial and national levels.

Therefore, outstanding members from those varsity teams will be able to join the provincial and national teams and make their debut at international competitions.

Against this backdrop, the sports department of SZU’s normal school has enrolled a number of professional young athletes for its varsity team. Drawing upon the university’s education and research resources, the athletes can not only train themselves in a safer and more efficient way to improve their competiveness in international competitions, but also maintain their school education progress and have access to wider career options in the future.

In addition to swimming, SZU is also cultivating professional talents on chess, rhythmic gymnastics, golf, basketball, and badminton.

(Wang Haolan)