Profile | Swim champion Zhang Yufei winner of most medals in China Olympic history misses hometown soup
China champion swimmer Zhang Yufei, also known as the “Butterfly Queen”, has won 10 Olympic medals which makes her the most decorated Games athlete in the country’s history.
Zhang’s prowess in the pool and personality have further cemented her place among her huge fan base.
Born in 1998 in Xuzhou, Zhejiang province in eastern China, she excels in the butterfly event, hence the nickname.
Zhang has competed in three Olympics and is affectionately dubbed the “Model Worker Sister” by her fans.
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, she won two gold medals, one in the 200m butterfly, setting a new Olympic record, and the other in the women’s 4 × 200m freestyle relay. She also secured two silver medals.
No pain, no gain
Adding to her medal tally, she secured one silver and five bronze medals in Paris, including a silver in the mixed 4 × 100m medley relay and bronze in both the women’s 100 and 200m butterfly.
Notably, she won bronze in the women’s 50m freestyle, which is not her specialty.
After winning bronze medal in the women’s 200m butterfly, Zhang tearfully shared her struggles with illness and menstrual pain during the competition, touching many hearts.
“I just recovered from a fever yesterday, and today my period started. The entire right side of my body was numb. I didn’t expect to swim this fast because I was still feeling numb before getting in the water.
“My warm-up did not go as usual either. But to put it straightforwardly, I feel that even if I die, I want to die in the pool,” Zhang told state television broadcaster CCTV.
Her achievements have drawn comparisons with the male swimmer Pan Zhanle, a two-time gold medal winner in Paris who also set a new world record in the men’s 100m freestyle.
Zhang said: “Maybe I can’t amaze everyone like Pan, but since I debuted, I have hardly missed the podium in any international competition. So I hope my performance will earn recognition. Chinese athletes aren’t just a flash in the pan.”
Beyond the pool
Away from swimming, Zhang has captivated her fan base with her adorable, curious and bubbly personality.
She started to play in the swimming pool at the age of three while her mother, Zhang Min, a former professional swimmer and Jiangsu provincial champion, gave swimming lessons.
Her father, also a swimming coach, passed away in an unexplained accident when she was four.
After the Paris Olympics, Zhang said she wanted to take a rest, try another lifestyle and “maybe find a boyfriend”.
In an interview on August 22 when she returned to her hometown in Jiangsu province north of Shanghai she said: “It feels very relaxing to be home. I want to eat duck blood vermicelli soup but without the duck blood.”
The soup is a traditional Nanjing dish known for its fresh and savoury flavours.
On August 29, while visiting Hong Kong with her fellow Olympians she also expressed her fondness for the city’s dim sum while showing her basic Cantonese skills.
The future
On August 20, when President Xi Jinping met China’s Olympic delegation for Paris 2024 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Zhang was prominently positioned in the front row, with six medals from the Paris Olympics hanging around her neck.
While shaking her hand, Xi asked about the weight of her medals.
Zhang said later that she initially felt guilty for not securing a gold medal for China in Paris.
However, she took great encouragement in the president’s words, which referred to a traditional Chinese saying: “For a military commander, winning or losing a battle is a common occurrence.”
Now, she is determined to focus on her journey towards the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“To date, I have won 10 Olympic medals, a historic achievement for a Chinese athlete, but this is not the end.
“No Chinese female swimmer has competed in the Olympics by the age of 30, and this is precisely my goal for the next four years,” said Zhang.
