After 8 years, a more mature Ye Shiwen heads back to Summer Olympics

Ye Shiwen, 28, will participate in the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris for the Chinese national swimming team after securing qualification in late April. It has been eight years since her last appearance at the Games.

"I think I gave a 100 percent effort there," Ye told China Media Group (CMG). "I wasn't in my best form, either physically or mentally, before the final. It took me a long time to adjust my mindset."

Ye became an Olympic gold medalist in 2012, when she won the women's 200-meter individual medley and 400-meter individual medley titles at the London Games when she was just 16 years old.

Four years later, however, Ye suffered one of the biggest setbacks in her career. She finished in fourth place in the 200-meter individual medley final and failed to reach the 400-meter individual medley final at the Rio de Janeiro Games.

Feeling frustrated, Ye stayed away from the swimming pool and pursued other activities in an effort to ease her pain. She became a full-time student at Tsinghua University Law School in 2017 and graduated this year. She says she grew more mature during this period, and returned to the pool with a better mindset in 2019.

"The first time I finally got my mindset right was at the World Aquatics Championships in Gwangju in 2019," Ye said. "From 2013 to 2019, it took me six years to do so."

Ye finished the women's 200-meter individual breaststroke event in 2:22.55 at China's Olympic trials in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, in April. But even though she qualified for the 2024 Olympics in that event, she failed to advance beyond the preliminary competition in her favored 400-meter individual medley.

Nonetheless, Ye didn't let the failure bring her to her knees. Instead, she took three days to shake off the frustration, and then secured her spot in Paris.

"I think swimming is something I love and enjoy. So it's not like I have to do it," Ye told CMG. "I enjoy everything about it, including the fact that I can perform better in competitions after working hard in training. I even enjoy the pain of training, because after I beat the pain and learn that I've done better than last week, I feel so accomplished."