Ye Shiwen

Ye Shiwen (born March 1, 1996, Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China) is a Chinese swimmer, who specialized in the 200-meter and 400-meter individual medley (IM). In IMs the swimmer performs four different strokes (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle) during the same race. Ye was a breakout star at the London 2012 Olympic Games, winning two gold medals and breaking Olympic and world records. Although she competed at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games, she failed to win any medals.

Early life

Ye was the only child born to working-class parents, who had been amateur athletes in their youth. Her mother, Ning Yiqing, was a long jump champion, and her father, Ye Qingsong, was a runner. Ye Shiwen began swimming at an early age, reportedly after her kindergarten teacher became convinced that Ye’s physique (most notably her height and relatively large hands and feet) was especially well suited for swimming. At six years old, Ye enrolled in the elite Chenjinglun Sports School. She excelled in local competitions and was admitted to an intensive training program in Australia, where she was guided by well-known swimming coaches Ken Wood and Denis Cotterell. In 2008 she joined the Chinese national team.

Career

Ye began competing internationally in 2010, when she was 14 years old. That year she competed at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China. She won the 200-meter IM with a time of 2 min 09.37 sec and the 400-meter IM with a time of 4 min 33.79 sec. The next year she won the 200-meter IM—with a time of 2 min 08.90 sec—at the FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation) World Championships in Shanghai. In 2012 she participated in several national competitions before preparing for the London Olympics.

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At the Olympics the 16-year-old Ye competed in the 200-meter IM, the 400-meter IM, and the 4 × 200-meter freestyle relay. She won the gold medal in the 200-meter IM with a time of 2 min 07.57 sec, breaking the Olympic record. In the 400-meter IM she came from behind, overtaking the leader in the last 100 meters during the freestyle stroke, to win the gold medal. Ye ended the race with a world-record time of 4 min 28.43 sec, some 3 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor. The 4 × 200-meter freestyle relay team came in sixth place.

Ye continued to swim well for the next few years. At the end of 2012 she participated in the World Championships in Istanbul. She won the gold medal in the 200-meter IM and the silver medal in the 400-meter IM. She successfully competed at the 2013 Chinese National Championships. At the 2014 Asian Games in Inch’ŏn, South Korea, she won gold medals in the 200-meter and 400-meter IMs and in the 4 × 100-meter freestyle relay. By 2015, however, Ye’s times had slowed down. That year she won the 200-meter IM—with a time of 2 min 11.46 sec—and the 400-meter IM—with a time of 4 min 36.58 sec—at the national championships but was unable to win any other competitions she entered.

Nevertheless, Ye made it onto the Chinese national team that competed at the 2016 Olympic Games. She finished in eighth place in the 200-meter IM with a time of 2 min 13.56 sec and 27th place in the 400-meter IM with a time of 4 min 45.86 sec. Disappointed with her showing and succumbing to the pressure of being a world-class athlete, Ye took some time to study law at Tsinghua University in Beijing in 2017–18. She continued to compete in international competitions, but she rarely placed in the top three in the IM events.

Ye trained hard to improve her times. At the 2019 National Swimming Championships she finished first in the 200- and 400-meter IMs and the 200-meter breaststroke. Those wins made her eligible for that year’s World Championships held in Kwangju (Gwangju), South Korea. There she earned the silver medal in both IM events and came in fourth in the breaststroke. Her finishes of 2 min 08.60 sec in the 200-meter IM and 4 min 32.07 sec in the 400-meter IM were some of her fastest times over the past few years. However, Ye recorded slower times in subsequent national competitions, and she was left off the 2020 Chinese Olympic team.

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