Shiwen Ye to Add 100 Free, 200 Backstroke to Schedule for Chinese Nationals

The psych sheets have been posted for the 2013 Chinese National Swimming Competition, and there are a few surprises from some of China’s stars.

Most specifically World Record holder and Olympic Champion Shiwen Ye, who turned 17 the first of this month, will be swimming 5 different races. Her schedule will include the 200 and 400 IM’s, where she’s the best in the world right now, but will also add the 100 free, the 200 free, and the 200 backstroke. The 200 backstroke is really peculiar; I don’t know that we’ve ever seen her swim that race in any sort of a publicized forum. In her 400 IM, it’s probably her weakest leg, though we know with the way she swims that race, there’s a lot of carefully-controlled pacing going on.

Sun Yang, another Chinese World Record holder and Olympic champ, will swim his usual lineup of the 200, 400, 800, and 1500 freestyles.

Yet another Chinese World Record holder, Zhang Lin, will make his return and once again try and regain his world-class status. He’s had more than two years of difficult swims since winning Olympic silver in the 400 free in Beijing and breaking the World Record in the 800 free a year later at Worlds. He finished 10 seconds behind Sun Yang at September’s Chinese University Championships in the 200 free the last time we heard from him.

If you speak Chinese, their swimming association has conveniently made the start lists available in Excel (what a novel idea) here.

This meet is the official selection meet for the Chinese National Games in the fall, a very high-profile, multi-sport Olympic-style championship. The results will also be heavily considered in the selection of the World Championships roster, though as we’ve seen in the past, the Association is never bound by the results of any qualifying meet.