China’s 9-time world champion Sun Yang is busy preparing to appear at his 7th World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea next week. The 27-year-old team captain has recently been training in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, before arriving in the South Korean city two days ago.

He has been intensely training under coach Denis Cotterell, and the Chinese swimmer has already admitted that he even cried after one particularly hard session. The three-time Olympic gold medalist, said, “Just a few swimmers, no more than 10, have competed in more World Championships than me. Maybe Katinka Hosszu of Hungary is one of them. I train at a high level every day, so I can stand here at my seventh World Championships. I want to be completely ready for the competition.”

He will not be competing in the long events because of the tight schedule, and will instead focus on the 200, 400 and 800-meter freestyle races. Sun also mentioned, “I want to get involved, settle in, and enjoy the atmosphere here. I watched some diving and artistic swimming and saw my compatriots from our administration.

Meanwhile, while admiring some of his compatriots, he added, “Shi Tingmao and Wang Han are from my generation of athletes. They have maintained a high level and dominated the event on their field, which is not easy for female athletes at their age. When I heard the national anthem, I felt excited and became eager to start my own events. This helps me a lot.”