Qi Hui

Qi Hui (born 1985-01-13 in Fuzhou, Fujian) is a Chinese swimmer. She specialises in breaststroke but is also a world-class individual medlay swimmer. Technically perfect and undoubtedly very hard-working and talented, Qi has a career that has been marked by lots of ups and downs over the years.

Qi first got noticed at the 1997 Chinese National Games, where the 12-year-old placed 4th in the 200 breast (2:30.77). She made her international debut in the 1998 Goodwill Games in New York. She won silver behind Japan's Masami Tanaka in the 200 breast (2:28.44 to 2:28.71) at the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok, where she was the youngest athlete in the Chinese delegation.

Qi continued climbing up the world rankings in 1999. At the World Short Course Championships in Hong Kong, she placed 3rd behind Tanaka and South Africa's Olympic champion Penny Heyns in the 200 breast (2:25.05). A few months later, she broke 1992 Olympic champion Kyoko Iwasaki's Asian record (50m) with a 2:26.51. This ranked her 4th globally in 1999.

The 2000 Olympics in Sydney proved to be a disheartening experience for Qi. Considered to be China's best hope for a swimming medal, she choked in the 200 breast final, finishing 0.01 behind USA's Amanda Beard for 4th (2:25.35 to 2:25.36). Ironically, her time in the semi-final, 2:24.21, which was a national record, could have been fast enough to win the final, which was won by Hungary's Agnes Kovacs at 2:24.35.

The Olympic experience prompted Qi to train much harder, and it paid off soon. She set her first world record in January 2001 in Paris with a 2:19.25 for the 200 breast (25m), followed shortly by a 2:22.99 world record in the 50m pool, cutting short Penny Heyns' original mark by 0.65 sec. She also won the 2001 East Asian Games easily in 2:25.33. However, she faltered at the 2001 World Championships in Fukuoka, finishing 2nd in her pet event behind Kovacs (2:24.90 to 2:25.09). She won a bronze in the 200IM (2:12.46 pb) and was 4th in the 400IM (4:41.64). The 2001 Chinese National Games was disappointing for Qi too: she failed to win any golds, being out-touched by the relatively unknown Luo Nan in the 200 breast (2:24.76 to 2:24.80), was 2nd in the 400IM after former world record holder Chen Yan (4:35.22 to 4:38.20) and 3rd in the 100 breast (1:09.12) behind Luo Xuejuan and Luo Nan.

2002 was a fruitful year for Qi, as she swam a 2:23.74 200 breast (fastest time of the year, and 3rd fastest all time) at the Chinese Nationals, won her first world title at the Short Course Worlds in Moscow (2:20.91 in the 200 breast), and took home three golds (200 breast: 2:24.01; 200 IM: 2:13.94 and 400 IM: 4:40.37) and 1 silver (100 breast: 1:08.24) at the Asian Games in Busan, Korea in October. She also took down her own 200 breast world record (25m) to 2:18.86 in December.

After a fabulous 2002, the 2003 World Championships was not Qi wanted it to be. She finished a disappointing 3rd in the 200 breast (2:25.78) behind USA's Amanda Beard (who won by tying Qi's world record at 2:22.99) and Australia's Leisel Jones (2:24.33, Commonwealth record). Qi was 4th in the 200 IM and 9th in the 400 IM.

In 2004, Qi made her 2nd Olympic team with relative ease, but before the Olympics, she lost her (joint) world record to Leisel Jones, who swam a 2:22.96 in Brisbane, and this was followed by Amanda Beard's stunning world record of 2:22.44 at the US Olympics Trials a few days later. Qi was still widely expected to be a legitimate contender for Olympic bronze. It looked to be the case during that race in Athens, as she was 3rd at the 150m mark. However, she ran out of gas and posted a 38.99 final 50m, the slowest final lap among the 8 finalists, and dropped to 6th at 2:26.35 (incidentially, she had also swum the slowest final lap in the 200 breast final in the 2000 Olympics). Germany's Anne Poleska claimed the bronze in 2:25.82, which was marginally slower than Qi's 2:25.80 from the Chinese Nationals earlier in the year. In the Olympics, Qi also entered the 100 breast but was disqualified in the final for an illegal underwater dolphin kick. The race was won by her compatriot Luo Xuejuan at 1:06.64. Qi also placed 29th in the 200 IM in an awfully slow 2:26.02.

Qi continued to train after the Olympics. She competed in the 2004 World Short Course Championships in Indiannopolis but did not win any hardware.

2005-06 was a time for bouncing back. Qi skipped the 2005 World Championships in Montreal to concentrate on the Chinese National Games in October, where she regained her old form by winning the 200 breast (2:24.14), 200 IM (2:12.17) and the 400 IM (4:38.24), and placing 2nd in the 100 breast (a huge pb of 1:07.27). She also won the 200IM (2:09.33) and the 400IM (4:34.28) and the 200m breast (2:20.72) at the 2006 World Short Course Championship in Shangai. She won the same three events at the Doha Asian Games --- 200IM at 2:11.92; 400IM at 4:38.31 and 200 breast at 2:23.93. All times ranked among the top 4 globally in 2006.

Sadly, the 2007 World Championships was the worst international meet in Qi's career. Having switched to a new training approach which proved to be unsuitable for her, she totally messed up her two IM races in Melbourne, though she managed to make the semi-finals in the 200 breast.

Still motivated, Qi was determined to make an attempt to qualify for her third Olympics, to be host in her home country in 2008. Her more recent international appearance was the World Military Games in Hyderabad, India, in October 2007, where she won the 200 breast (2:29.23) and took silver in the 100 (1:09.52).

She showed even more promising signs at the Good Luck Beijing 2008 Swimming China Open, held in the "WaterCube" (venue for 2008 Olympic swimming and diving competitions) in early February, where she posted solid times in the 200IM (2:14.14), 100 breast (1:08.22) and 200 breast (2:27.11). Qi admitted that the 2007 Melbourne Worlds was a devastating experience, but with the encouragement of her coach she has regained self-confidence, though she has much work to do on getting used to racing finals in the morning.

ee also

*China at the 2008 Summer Olympics

References

External links

* [http://2008teamchina.olympic.cn/index.php/personview/personsen/773 Beijing 2008 Team China Profile]