Li Bingjie is a Chinese National swimmer. She is a 2020 Olympian, world champion, and Asian champion.
At the Chinese National Championships on April 1, 2017, Bingjie won the 400m free with a then World Leading time of 4:02.52.
See race video of Bingjie’s 4:02.52 performance here:
2017 World Championships
Bingjie finished third in the 400m Free behind the two Americans, Katie Ledecky and Leah Smith. Her time of 4:03.25 was well behind second place finisher, Leah Smith, and off her time from the Chinese Nationals.
Bingjie swam the anchor on China’s 4x200m Free Relay to help them win the silver medal, splitting a time of 1:55.46, fastest split on the Chinese team.
Day seven Bingjie won silver in the women’s 800m freestyle final. She dropped an impressive swim, 8:15.46, crushing her Asian record.
2018 Asian Games
Bingjie pulled her biggest international medal haul to date in Jakarta, scoring 5 medals over the course of the meet. She won her first international 200 free title (1:56.74) as well as led off China’s victorious 4×200 free relay. She also took triple silver in the 400-800-1500 behind her Chinese teammate Wang Jianjiahe.
2018 Short Course World Championships
Bingjie kept the medals coming in in her home world championships of Hangzhou, earning bronze in the 400 free, right behind silver medalist and countrywoman Wang Jianjiahe. She also helped China win it’s only relay title in the women’s 4×200 free relay, leading off in a 1:54.56.
2020 Olympic Games
Li started off her Games in the prelims of the 400 free, where she registered a new Asian record of 4:01.57 to qualify 2nd heading into the final. In the final, Li went another best of 4:01.08, finishing in 3rd behind Katie Ledecky and Ariarne Titmus, earning her first Olympic medal with a bronze.
Li Bingjie was back in the 4×200 free relay, anchoring China in 1:55.30, holding a charging Katie Ledecky from the USA off to touch for gold in a new world record, 7:40.33.
Bingjie swam in the prelims of the 800 free the following night, finishing in 8:22.49 to place 10th, missing the final heat.
2023 World Aquatics Championships (Fukuoka, Japan)
After a 4:01.08 400 free at Chinese Nationals in March, Li had to face a loaded 400 free field at Worlds featuring 3 former/current world record holders (Titmus, Ledecky, and McIntosh) as well as the #6 all-time performer (Erika Fairweather). In prelims, Li was 8th in 4:04.98, perhaps beecuse of her aggressive front half, but was still far from missing the final as 9th was 2.4 seconds back from her. She was a lot better in finals despite being out slower than prelims at the 200 with a 2:00.01 (vs a 1:59.13) and powered home in 2:01.64 for a 4:01.65 for 5th.
In the 1500, Li was solid in prelims with a 15:58.81 for 4th, not too far off her best of 15:51.21 from May. In the final, it Li was faster on almost every split and only dipped into 32-second 50s 2 times versus most of her prelims splits. The best part of her swim was probably her closing speed where she went from 5th to 3rd on the back of a 2:01.32 to earn bronze in 15:45.71.
In the 800 free, Li made some history of her won behind Katie Ledecky’s historic win. Li got to the wall in a mark of 8:13.31, claiming a new Chinese national and Asian continental record in the process. Her performance overtook the previous mark of 8:14.64 Wang Jianjiahe put on the books at the 2019 Chinese Championships. The time was also the #31 time in history, which might seem far down, but Ledecky all the better times.
Earlier in the 800 free relay, Li lead off in 1:55.83, the 2nd fastest lead-off behind Mollie O’Callaghan. The Chinese pulled through with a bronze.
