National Championship Competition – Swimming

Love the aquatic center! It is so spacious, especially after I have been crushing in the tight apartment building for a few weeks. My parents tend to interact with me very closely, so it feels great to go somewhere open without supervision :). I also love the check-ins. We don’t need to bring paper tickets or e-tickets anymore these days just your ID. I love things that are out-of-date fast so you can feel that upward speed of moving life and human generation forward 🙂 There is an X-ray screening for security at the entrance (almost no lines) and you are not allowed to bring in water.

Inside it looks clean and bright with comfortable seats. My son and I were taking selfies before and after the swimming events. Later I found that those were one of the best pictures we took in China, natural and relaxed with our best smiles. It must be an enjoyable experience. I didn’t remember what we were laughing so hard then though.

Chinese swimming team has some cool Olympian Athletes, e.g., 汪顺 (Tokyo Olympic Games 200 IM gold medalist), 张雨霏（Tokyo Olympic Games – 200 Fly gold medalist)，潘展乐 (Paris Olympic Games, 100 free gold medalist, broke the world record at 46.40 s). Those are all very valuable gold medals in Olympic games and had a lot of competitors world-wide. Those Olympians are tall with beautiful bodies, very pleasant to watch. Later I saw 汪顺 was doing back stroke in a relay and wow, he passed the second person more than one-person length after 50 meters like a magic.

Many young girls spent $100 (US dollars) or $1000 (RMBs) buying a ticket here, not for watching actually swimming events, but for watching their favorite idols. Whenever some star athletes come out or pass by to the podium, I heard those loud screaming of their names. Everyone’s camera was up for their walking swimmers :). It makes the swimming match more fun and hilarious to watch 🙂

Every winner got a cute penguin besides a medal (we bought one too and looked at its cute backpack). Unfortunately the ones who gave awards were just those boring party officials. It would be much cooler if they were retired Olympians or some movie stars :). Love to watch swimming meets, it is very fast paced, and the movement of those bodies are just so beautiful. I often wonder “my strokes look also perfect and then what’s the secret sauce that they move so fast, hmm”, can’t figure it out 🙁

It’s late and raining when we leave. People were still out on the street and selling souvenirs for this swimming match. China is never boring. You can find all sorts of people here, any time.