Nearly 1,300 young Chinese swimmers ranging from 10 to 18 years old participated in the Beijing Youth Swimming Championships which concluded on Sunday.

The four-day event, held over the last two weekends, covered freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and individual medley.

"Swimming is popular among youths nationwide. High-level events can inspire them to train even harder and achieve the best," said Cao Wei, a technical representative of the Beijing Youth Swimming Championships. "In April and May, the swimmers were qualified in the district-level events in order to compete in the municipal championships, so they can represent the top youth swimmers in Beijing."

Although most of the participants may not become professional athletes in the future, they still cherish swimming as a life-long hobby.

In the rest area of the venue, Zhao Xiaotong, 10, was watching the event's live broadcast on the phone. "I am waiting for my turn," she said. "I'm trying to get used to the atmosphere here and learn from others."

Just minutes later, Zhao from Dongcheng District amazed the audience to bag the 10-year-old girl's 50m backstroke and 200m individual medley titles.

"The gold medal is the best gift for me. I am making breakthroughs step by step," Zhao noted. "My parents wanted me to learn swimming to prevent drowning for safety concern, but now, swimming is a part of my life."

While in the 10-year-old boy's 50m freestyle and 400m freestyle, Niu Chenxuan from Xicheng District failed to enter the final eight in both events, "I train six days a week with at least an hour each time and still need to do more. I hope to be a swimming coach or major in swimming at college."

As Sunday is Olympic Day, the young swimmers also had Olympic champions that they admire the most. "Zhang Yufei is my idol. I always watch her videos to learn skills and mentality," Zhao said.

In February this year, Beijing won the bid for the 2029 World Aquatics Championships. Five years later, Niu will become a high school student. He said, "I won't miss the world event held at home and want to see Qin Haiyang and other Chinese swimmers win more medals."

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