Yao Zhengjie, 61, has every reason to stay home playing with his grandson, but the Chinese swimming head coach says it's too early to enjoy life.
When Chinese swimmers had a big leap in the Kazan world championships, Yao said his decision to postpone retirement was right.
No one had expected Chinese to take the men's 100m freestyle gold medal, especially by a world championship debutant.
The 22-year-old Ning Zetao stunned the world on Thursday night with a historic win in the blue-ribbon men's 100m freestyle in 47.84 seconds.
Ning, the first Asian swimmer to have broken the 48-second barrier in over 100m, ended the Western domination and became the first Chinese to win the event.
The Chinese navy lieutenant saluted the national flag during the medal ceremony. "I show the world that Chinese men can also win the short distance swimming," he said.
Ning's victory strengthened China's power in the men's pool, the sprint race in particular. Olympic and world champion Sun Yang has already dominated distance races in freestyle.
"It's a huge breakthrough," said an excited Yao. "I am very happy to see Chinese male swimmers progressing in recent years."
Former Chinese head coach Chen Yunpeng also hailed Ning's feat.
"The men's 100m freestyle, an equivalent to the men's 100m dash on track, is one of the first events at the first Olympic Games, and it had been the shortest pool event at that time," said the 79-year-old Chen, who stayed up late to watch the final on TV.
Born in 1935, Chen had been a successful butterfly swimmer, winning several national titles. Chen coached the Chinese team from 1981 to 1995, witnessing the up and downs of Chinese swimming.
Chinese swimmers had created good results in the 1950s. Mu Xiangxiong broke the men's 100m breaststroke world record for three times and became the first Chinese man to break world mark. At the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, Chinese surprised the world with a four-gold, five-silver performance by "Five Golden Flowers". However, the "Flower 5" were accused of doping by some western countries, although there was no evidence.
Chinese swimming had been under fire after seven swimmers tested positive at the 1994 Asian Games, and at the 1998 world championships, four more failed tests. The doping scandals sent the Chinese swimming to the bottom. Luo Xuejuan was the only star swimmer who won the women's 50m and 100m breast at the 2001 and 2003 worlds. Luo also won the 100m breast gold at the Athens Games in 2004.
The best result for Chinese male swimmers had been a fourth finish by Jiang Chengji at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics until Zhang Lin made history to win the first Olympic men's medal at the 2008 Beijing Games.
"We have expertise but we still need to learn from foreign countries," said Chen.
Zhang trained in Australia under world-known coach Denis Cotterell, who also guided Sun Yang.
At the 2009 Rome worlds, Zhang became the first Chinese man to claim a gold medal at the world championships. At the 2012 London Games, Sun Yang won China's first Olympic gold in the men's swimming. And in Kazan, Ning won the most important gold in pool for China.
At the same time, the female swimmers kept winning Olympic golds. Liu Zige claimed the 200m fly at the 2008 Beijing Games, and at the 2012 London Games, Ye Shiwen won the 200m and 400m medley gold, and Jiao Liuyang had 200m fly title.
This time in Kazan, China's youngster Zhang Yufei took a bronze in women's 200m fly in the absence of Liu and Jiao. The 19-year-old Fu Yuanhui won the 50m back title on Thursday. Sun Yang won the 400m and 800m titles earlier. Young swimmers Wang Shun, Xu Jiayu, and Liu Xiang all renewed their personal bests.
"The success was based on years of efforts," said head coach Yao. "We have some very good coaches in our team, who scouted and cultivated talented swimmers. Training aboard opened their mind and gave them opportunities to compete with foreign competitors."
One thing comes along with attention is suspicion.
Some foreign media had doubted Ye Shiwen's results at the London Games, and FINA said in a statement that the suspicions had no basis. The IOC also backed Ye.
Sun went through a hard time after his doping ban was revealed last year. The star swimmer had tested positive for the banned stimulant trimetazidine during the national championships last May.
The Chinese Swimming Association (CSA) banned Sun for three months from May 16 to Aug. 17 although it believed in Sun's innocence and said Sun had offered enough evidence to prove he had no intention to take the performance-enhancing drugs.
Sun has been barred from training in Australia and his Australian coach Cotterell wasn't allowed to coach Sun as a result of the new policy to be implemented by Swimming Australia.
Sun was asked about the doping ban after winning the 400m last Sunday and the 23-year-old hit back: "Around the world when China has good results, people always think about something bad. We are training as hard as other athletes in the world. There is absolutely no doubt about our performances," he said.
Ning's road to success wasn't that smooth. After eating meat bought from the Chinese market, he was tested positive for clenbuterol, which led to one year suspension.
China has put in efforts in anti-doping in recent years. Chinese announced the number of last year's positive cases in April. In 2014, 48 doping violations took place from 15,055 tests that included 14,562 urine tests, 493 blood tests and 26 local tests.
