孙杨在伦敦奥运会力求多枚金牌

China’s rising swimming star Sun Yang is getting-in his final practice laps at the team’s UK base at the University of Bath.

The 20-year-old has spent the last four years building toward¹ a star-making role at these Olympic Games. He shook up the swimming establishment² with two gold medals and a new world record at the 2011 FINA world championships.

Four years ago, the then-16 year-old Sun appeared at the Beijing Games and finished eighth in the 1500 freestyle. But since then, his rise seems unstoppable. He took two gold medals and two silvers at the 2010 Asian Games, and went on to surprise the experts by taking 4 medals at last year’s FINA World Championships.

In the 1500 freestyle, Sun broke the mark set by Australian legend Grant³ Hackett. It was the longest-held world record in swimming. Sun is at the top of his game, and only has one real rival⁴ for the gold this summer.

Liu Haitao, coach of Chinese National Swimming Team, said, "Nobody has come close to beating Sun, especially in freestyle. The biggest threat may be Park Tae-Hwan from South Korea."

Park won the 400m freestyle gold in Beijing, and could upset Sun in the shorter-distance race. But when asked if anybody could come close to Sun’s 1500 meter record, China’s chief technical researcher gave a hint⁵ of the team’s confidence.

Lu Yifan, Chief Technical Researcher of Chinese National Swimming Team, said, "It is very difficult for me to see that. It is just a guess. We hope he can break the record. Maybe he could break the record by several seconds."

Lu hopes Chinese Team will achieve at least three golds in the pool. But both he and Liu singled out Great Britain’s Ellen Gandy as a real threat in women’s 200m butterfly.

Lu Yifan said, "Gandy is capable⁶ of swimming 2 minutes, 5 seconds, maybe. That’s a very, very good result and we pay very close attention to this girl."

At last year’s world championships, Gandy won silver in a time of 2:05.59, finishing 0.04 seconds behind China’s Jiao Liuyang. Their matchup might be one of the can’t-miss showdowns at London 2012.

1 toward   

prep.对于，关于，接近，将近，向，朝

参考例句：

• Suddenly I saw a tall figure approaching toward the policeman.突然间我看到一个高大的身影朝警察靠近。
• Upon seeing her,I smiled and ran toward her. 看到她我笑了，并跑了过去。

2 establishment   

n.建立，确立，确定；企业，机构；当权人物

参考例句：

• With the establishment of major new markets, the economy is thriving.随着重大新市场的建立，经济越来越兴旺。
• The establishment of the business took several years.创办这个公司花了好几年时间。

3 grant   

vt.同意给予，授予，承认；n.拨款；补助款

参考例句：

• If you grant my request, you will earn my thanks.如果你答应我的要求，就会得到我的感谢。
• He requested that the premier grant him an internview.他要求那位总理接见他一次。

4 rival   

n.竞争对手，敌手；vt.与…相匹敌，比得上

参考例句：

• None of us can rival him in strength.我们谁也没他劲大。
• She defeat all her rival for the job with nonchalant ease.她从容不迫地击败求职的所有竞争者。

5 hint   

n.暗示，示意；[pl]建议；线索，迹象；v.暗示

参考例句：

• He gave me a hint that I was being cheated.他暗示我在受人欺骗。
• He quickly took the hint.一点他就明白了。

6 capable   

adj.有能力的，有才能的

参考例句：

• The new woman secretary was extremely clever and capable.这位新来的女秘书很是精明强干。
• Jim is capable at sports.吉姆擅长运动。