The World Swimming Championships kicked off today. China’s swimming army trained Doha and pointed the sword at Paris.

On the afternoon of February 2, Beijing time, the 2024 World Swimming Championships will officially start in Doha, Qatar. During the 16-day competition, there will be six competitions: diving, synchronized swimming, open water swimming, water polo, swimming and high platform diving.

As the World Championships in the Olympic year, the China Swimming Team has different goals. Both the China diving team and the China Flower Tour team are playing with full strength, hoping to find the shortcomings in training and improve before the Olympic Games, while China,In order not to disrupt the pace of Olympic preparations, the swimming team sent more young players toTraining and accumulating experience are the main purposes.

The diving team went all out.

The diving event of the World Championships in Doha is the last stop to determine the seats for the Paris Olympic Games. For many foreign athletes, this is their last chance to get tickets for the Olympic Games. Therefore, a record-breaking 306 athletes from 55 countries and regions participated in the competition.

Of course, for the China diving team, which won the full Olympic seats at the Fukuoka World Championships last year, there was no pressure in this competition. But even so, they sent a luxurious lineup to play.

This time, the diving dream team sent 13 players, including 8 male players and 5 female players, among whom 12 were world champions and 6 had won Olympic champions. Huang Jianjie, who is under 14 years old, is the only non-world champion and the youngest player.

Judging from the specific events, it is rare for China to give up three non-Olympic events this time, namely, the women’s 1m springboard, the mixed 3m springboard and the mixed team competition. However, in order to increase the competition experience of young athletes, Zheng Jiuyuan and Zhang Jiaqi/Huang Jianjie will participate in two other non-Olympic events-the men’s 1m springboard and the mixed doubles 10m platform.

As for the focus of the team, it is the "Gemini" Chen Yuxi and Quan Hongchan, who will conquer the world again with the "splash disappearance"; In addition, Cao Yuan, a three-dynasty Olympic champion who returned from injury, and Xie Sichou, a men’s 3m springboard champion who returned from Tokyo last year, attracted special attention.

The flower tour team participated in the whole project for the first time.

In this Doha Swimming World Championships, Huayou competed in 11 events, and China will participate in all events for the first time. Among them, Yang Shuncheng, a teenager from Beijing Flower Tour Team, will make his debut in the men’s singles competition for the first time.

The 17-year-old Yang Shuncheng took part in the national team training at the beginning of last year, and then won two gold medals in the men’s single technical optional and free optional at the synchronized swimming World Cup in Egypt in May, which was his first time to compete abroad. This time, he will attack his first gold medal in the World Championships.

In December 2022, FINA officially announced that male synchronized swimmers were allowed to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Subsequently, the World Swimming Federation introduced new rules for synchronized swimming, which brought about earth-shaking changes: team events allowed up to two male players to play; Add collective skills to select projects; The difficulty of the movements during the competition will be deducted as "fierce". Once the technical referee determines that the athletes have not completed the declared difficulty score, no matter how perfect the other movements are, the whole series of movements will fall to a benchmark score of only 0.5 …

In this case, the China Flower Tour Team has been trying to adapt to the new rules, and won 3 gold medals, 1 silver and 1 bronze at the Fukuoka Swimming World Championships in 2023, successfully achieving the breakthrough of "zero" in the Olympic gold medal at the Paris Cycle World Championships. Since then, they have successfully locked seats in the Paris Olympic Games by virtue of the doubles and team events champions of the Hangzhou Asian Games.

Swimming team training is the main task.

In order to make up for the lack of world competitions during the epidemic, FINA adjusted the World Championships to one year. This World Championships is not only the first Long Pool World Championships held in the Olympic year, but also held in winter for the first time, which has disrupted the pace of Olympic preparations for athletes from all over the world to some extent.

Under the comprehensive consideration, the China Swimming Team chose the strategy of preserving its strength and letting the youngsters train, but these youngsters should not be underestimated.

Li Bingjie is the only Olympic champion of the China Swimming Team in the World Championships in Doha, and is expected to hit a single gold medal in the women’s 1500m freestyle in the World Championships. Earlier, she said in an interview, "There are many strong opponents in this World Championships, but I will try my best to fight and seize the opportunity."

In addition to Li Bingjie, many young swimmers from the China Swimming Team will appear in Doha. Yu Yiting, the third runner-up of women’s 200m individual medley in Fukuoka World Championships, expects to make another breakthrough in performance. Last year, she set a new Asian Games record in Hangzhou in 2 minutes 07.75 seconds. Dong Zhihao and Qin Haiyang boarded the podium of the World Cup sub-races several times last year, which is a potential new star of China men’s breaststroke; Pan Zhanle’s 100-meter freestyle has the strength to "arm-wrestle" with world-class athletes.

It is worth mentioning that Zhang Zhanshuo, a 16-year-old Shandong teenager, will also welcome his first adult international competition. At the World Youth Championship last September, he won the runner-up in the 400-meter medley in 4 minutes, 12.44 seconds, making him the fastest athlete aged 16 and under in this event. And he is also the athlete with the most items reported by the China team in this World Championships, and will participate in five individual competitions.

Continue to work hard for Olympic qualification

In addition to the above three projects, ChinaathleteThis time, we will continue to work hard for the Olympic qualification in the two major events of water polo and open water.

At least four men’s teams and two women’s teams will directly enter the Paris Olympic Games in the World Water Polo Championships in Doha. With the gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, China Women’s Water has qualified for the Paris Olympic Games. In the division of men’s water polo competition, China is in Group B with the world runner-up Greek team, the host of the Paris Olympic Games, France and Brazil, so it is more difficult to attack the seats of the Lebanon Olympic Games.

In open water swimming, 10 km for men and women is an Olympic event, and the top three in Fukuoka World Championships and the top 13 in Doha World Championships will be qualified for the Paris Olympic Games. Xin Xin, the champion of Gwangju World Championships in 2019, has experienced ups and downs in injury and illness in the past two years. This time, she will make a final effort to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games. Mao Yihan, a teenager from Zhejiang, won the World Championships in open water and swimming through the national trials, and she will also strive to win in the double-track competition.