Sun Yang — who might objectively be the best freestyle swimmer in the world — pulled off a “miracle swim” even for his standards on Friday in the 4x200m freestyle relay at the 15th FINA World Championships in Barcelona.
Check out the video above. When Sun hits the water (lane 8, very bottom of the screen), his team’s in fifth place and more than two seconds behind the third-place French. All he does is swim 200 meters in 1:43.96 and beat both the French (lane 6) and Japanese (lane 3) swimmers by a fingertip.
“Miracle swim” is how Global Times’s headline described it. As Xinhua writes: “Sun must be wondering whether or not he could one day compete in the 200 meters freestyle as well as the 400, 800 and 1,500 meters, because on Friday’s form he would be unstoppable.”
Poor grammar aside, that’s basically about right.
Sun Yang became the first Chinese male swimmer to win Olympic gold last summer in London, and judging by his performance at the world championships, he might win a few more. As long as he stays out of trouble.
Another look:
(H/T Alicia)
