The Man Who Ended Phelps’ 200 Fly Streak in 2012 Will Race at the Knoxville Pro Swim

TYR PRO SWIM SERIES – KNOXVILLE

• January 11-14, 2022
• Knoxville, Tennessee
• LCM (50 meters), Prelims/Finals
• Psych Sheets

When the psych sheets for the first Pro Swim Series meet of the season dropped yesterday, one of our eagle-eyed readers caught an unexpected name at the bottom of the entry lists for the men’s 100 meter fly: 35-year-old Wu Peng.

Wu, a butterflier, represented China at the 2004, 2008, and 2012 Olympic Games, and during his career was one of the primary global antagonists to the most decorated Olympian in history: Michael Phelps.

Wu is perhaps most famous not for what he did on a global stage, but what he did at a pair of Grand Prix meets in the United States in 2011. Michael Phelps entered the Michigan Grand Prix that year with a 200 fly winning streak that spanned 9 years and almost 60 meets.

But Wu stepped onto the blocks and beat Phelps at that meet, and then beat him again at the pair’s next meet, the Charlotte UltraSwim. While that didn’t foreshadow Wu’s own victory at the Olympics later that year, it did foreshadow the chip in the armor that led to Chad le Clos upsetting the GOAT in the London Olympic 200 fly final.

Wu’s last major international meet was the 2013 World Championships, where he won a bronze medal in the 200 fly. Now it appears that Wu is returning to competition while training with the Mission Viejo Nadadores in California, where Jeff Julian is now leading the groups pro/elite training group.

We couldn’t find any recent official results for Wu, though he is entered with a 48.71 in the 100-yard fly. That means he will race in the early heats with other yards-qualifying swimmers. Wu re-entered the China Anti-Doping agency testing pool last year, and a vlog he posted in 2022 showed him training at Mission Viejo as well.

Wu lived and trained in the US from 2010-2013 and founded a swim lesson company in China. He has also worked as a commentator for major international swim meets.

While Wu never achieved his childhood goal of becoming the first Chinese man to win an Olympic medal in swimming, he did stand on a number of other podiums in his career. He won a silver medal in the 200 fly at the 2007 World Championships, plus bronze medals in 2005, 2011, and 2013. In short course, he was the World Champion in the 200 fly in 2006 and the bronze medalist in 2004.

He also won four career gold medals at the Asian Games, including in the 200 back, 200 fly, and 400 IM.