Do you know who was the first Chinese athlete to break a world record at the Olympics? Her name is Lin Li and she was born in Nantong, Jiangsu. Apart from her, Olympic champions such as Ge Fei, Huang Xu, Chen Jie and Chen Ruolin all started from Nantong and reached the highest podium in sport. Located in the "home of sport", Hiba pupils have also inherited the ambitions of their predecessors and are bravely moving forward in their passions in that field.
Hiba Academy Nantong has a wide range of sports programmes, but if you ask what is the most popular, it is swimming. Just this month, after fierce competition and selection, our first swimming team was finalised, and it was a great honour for all the team members!
The establishment of the swimming team will not only create a healthy body for Hiba pupils, but also enable those who love the sport and have good results to receive more professional training, break through to higher levels and have the opportunity to participate in international and national junior swimming events.
But behind the glory lies a lot of sweat and hardship. During the selection process, the pupils not only had to go through the land portion of the fitness test, but also had to compete in each of their current swimming disciplines: breaststroke, freestyle, butterfly. Every splash of the waves shows their hard work and striving, every sprint towards the finish line is full of their persistence and perseverance.
After joining the swimming team, they have to undergo more professional and intense swimming training on a daily basis to continually improve their swimming skills and levels; work closely with their teammates to develop teamwork and complete training and competition tasks together; and gain a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses in competition to improve their self-confidence.
