免费日韩片_欧美成人精品一区二区男人小说_国产乱码一区二区三区四区_国产精品国产三级国产aⅴ入口_成人看的污污超级黄网站免费_欧美一级在线免费观看_成人午夜免费无码福利片_国产乱人伦偷精品视频色欲_aaa少妇高潮大片免费看_国产精品1234_亚洲精品国产suv一区88_中文字字幕在线中文无码_精品亚洲区_午夜九九九_国产av国片精品jk制服丝袜_色综合亚洲_亚洲成av人片无码bt种子下载_欧美色就色_精品少妇的一区二区三区四区_男人用嘴添女人下身免费视频

Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
Sports
Home / Sports / Swimming

Li looks for ripple effect

After overcoming Ledecky and posting new Asian record, China's freestyle ace is eyeing more success in Singapore

By SUN XIAOCHEN | China Daily | Updated: 2025-07-29 09:56
Share
Share - WeChat
China's Li Bingjie clocked 3:58.21 in the women's 400m freestyle on Sunday, breaking her own Asian record and overtaking American legend Katie Ledecky in the final stretch to secure China's first swimming medal at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore. AFP

A long three-year struggle, a broken arm and countless training sessions that ended in tears — it all felt worthwhile for Li Bingjie after the final 30 meters on Sunday.

Riding the momentum of arguably the strongest 50m split of her career, the Chinese swimmer finally surmounted an obstacle that has stood in her way for eight years — her idol and long-term rival Katie Ledecky. Li finished ahead the nine-time Olympic gold medalist for the first time in an individual race since their first encounter in 2017.

She did so by overtaking Ledecky in the last 30 meters in the 400m freestyle final at her fifth World Aquatics Championships, clocking a new PB and Asian record of 3 min and 58.21sec, driven by a scintillating 28.67s final 50m dash, the fastest split in the final field.

Outperforming the undisputed queen of distance events, however, was not enough for Li to reach the top of the podium, with Canada's "Wonder Girl" Summer McIntosh leading all the way to secure her fifth world title — and first in freestyle — after touching in 3:56.26 to edge Li out by a margin of nearly two seconds.

That's the cruel nature of competitive sports at the highest level, and what has kept Li motivated to keep going after, once again, coming up just short on her hunt for gold.

"I've tried so hard to keep up with her, and to compete as best as I could against her, since I first raced her in 2017. So, it means the world to me to finally beat her in a race," said Li, who's also qualified for Wednesday's 1,500m free final, offering up a chance to challenge Ledecky again.

"It was a surprise for me, though. I swam according to my strategy, and then, in the last split, I realized the gap between myself and her wasn't too big, so, I thought: 'Let's give it a go'.

"She's maybe not at her peak now, but this result is still very significant and meaningful to me.

"I've looked up to her as an idol since I was young. This result today gave me a huge confidence boost.

1 2 3 Next   >>|

Most Popular

Highlights

What's Hot
Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US