Zhang Yufei (swimmer)

Zhang Yufei

File:Kazan 2015 - Zhang Yufei.jpg
Personal information
Full name	Zhang Yufei
National team	China
Born	(1998-04-19) 19 April 1998 Xuzhou, China
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	57 kg (126 lb)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Freestyle, butterfly
Club	Jiangsu Swimming Team
Coach	Ji Zhixiang
Medal record Women's swimming Representing China World Championships (LC) 2015 Kazan 200 m butterfly 2015 Kazan 4×200 m freestyle Summer Youth Olympics 2014 Nanjing 4×100 m freestyle 2014 Nanjing 4×100 m medley 2014 Nanjing 100 m butterfly 2014 Nanjing 200 m butterfly Asian Games 2014 Incheon 4×100 m freestyle

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Zhang.

Zhang Yufei (Chinese: 张雨霏; pinyin: Zhāng Yǔfēi; born 19 April 1998) is a Chinese competitive swimmer who specializes in sprint freestyle and butterfly events. Considered one of the most promising swimmers in the international scene, she currently holds a world junior record in the 200 m butterfly, and also produced a tally of seven medals (three golds, two silver, and two bronze) in her swimming career, spanning the Youth Olympics, Asian Games, and the World Championships.

Career

Born in Xuzhou, Zhang began swimming at the age of three partly because of the encouragement and influence of her mother, who acted as her personal coach. Two years later, she started training professionally as a member of the Jiangsu Swimming Team, and eventually held numerous records for her age group. As more records followed, Zhang's rapid improvement culminated on her major debut in an international sporting event at the age of fourteen, when she beat 2008 Olympic champion Liu Zige for the gold medal in the 200 m butterfly at the 2012 FINA World Cup meet in Beijing.

Zhang's international debut came as a member of the host nation China at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, where she achieved a total of five medals: three golds and two silver. Zhang started off the competition with a powerful butterfly split of 58.56 in the girls' 4×100 m medley relay that tremendously helped her Chinese foursome break the junior world record (4:03.58) for the gold medal. On the same night, she managed a strong swim to take the silver in the 200 m butterfly with a time of 2:08.22, finishing farther behind Hungary's Liliána Szilágyi by less than two seconds. In the girls' 4×100 m freestyle relay, Zhang posted a third leg split in 54.09 until her host nation's foursome celebrated again with another relay victory in 3:41.19. On August 22, Zhang relegated to her second silver in the 100 m butterfly at 57.95, narrowly losing the race again to Szilagyi by almost three tenths of a second. Despite missing out her first individual gold, Zhang and her teammates Li Guangyuan, He Yun, and Yu Hexin powered their stretch to grab another relay title for the Chinese squad in the mixed 4×100 m medley (3:49.33).

One month later, at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, Zhang set a 54.10 split on the third leg to put the Chinese squad ahead to a marvelous victory in the women's 4×100 m freestyle relay, with a time of 3:37.25.

At the 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia, Zhang swam her two finals on the fifth night of the competition with forty minutes in between. First, she lowered her own junior world record with 2:06.51 to take home her individual bronze in the 200 m butterfly. Forty minutes later, Zhang set a third leg split of 1:58.73 to deliver the Chinese foursome a bronze medal in the women's 4×200 m freestyle relay with a combined time of 7:49.10.

External links

• Nanjing 2014 Profile