After winning China’s first-ever silver medal in the triple jump at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2021, Zhu Yaming emerged as one of the top competitors in the world. Zhu won the bronze medal at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, one year later. Zhu told the China Media Group (CMG), “I have trained with foreign athletes for so many years, and I realized that we are as good as them.” “I believe I’m doing well. In some areas, we perform better than they do.”
Zhu believed he might have performed better at the Tokyo Olympics, when he finished with a height of 17.57 meters. Looking back, though, he feels fortunate to have been able to perform as well as he did that day. “It’s a perfect edition of the Olympics for me in Tokyo,” he stated. In May, Zhu turned thirty. Since the Tokyo Games, he believes he has been at his best, and he will continue to be so for at least another year.
As a warm-up for the Paris Olympics, Zhu will go to Rizhao, in the Shandong Province of east China, at the end of June to compete in the Chinese National Athletics Championships. During the winter training camp, he had a number of injuries, but he overcame them and gained more self-assurance before traveling to the French capital.
I have a calm mindset, which is why I’m in my finest form right now,” Zhu said to CMG. “I would have been under a lot of pressure to compete for a medal, or possibly a gold, in Paris if I hadn’t suffered the injuries. Rather, I now consider it a success because I was able to compete at the Paris Games in my greatest form.”