Dai Guohong (; born September 3, 1977, in

Liaoyang Liaoyang ( zh, s=辽阳 , t=遼陽 , p=Liáoyáng) is a prefecture-level city of east-central Liaoning province, China, situated on the Taizi River. It is approximately one hour south of Shenyang, the provincial capital, by car. Liaoyang is hom ...

Liaoning ) , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = Clockwise: Mukden Palace in Shenyang, Xinghai Square in Dalian, Dalian coast, Yalu River at Dandong , image_map = Liaoning in China (+all claims hatched).svg , ...

) is a retired Chinese swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke and individual medley events. Although she had never competed in any edition of the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

, Dai held her distinction of being one of the world's top class swimmers in the early 1990s. During her sporting career, she captured more than a dozen medals in breaststroke and individual medley, and also helped the Chinese team demolish a global standard in the medley relay from the

FINA World Aquatics Championships The World Aquatics Championships, formerly the FINA World Championships, are the World Championships for six aquatic disciplines: swimming, diving, high diving, open water swimming, artistic swimming, and water polo. The championships are stag ...

in 1994. In 1993, Dai made her first international breakthrough at the first ever FINA Short Course World Championships in

Palma de Mallorca, Spain Palma (, ; ), also known as Palma de Mallorca (officially between 1983 and 1988, 2006–2008, and 2012–2016), is the capital and largest city of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is ...

, where she captured a total of five medals, four golds and one silver. Dai also established three world records each in the 100 m breaststroke (1:06.58), 200 m breaststroke (2:21.99), and 400 m individual medley (4:29.00), and teamed with

He Cihong He Cihong (born 6 June 1975) is a Chinese former swimmer who competed in the 1992 Summer Olympics and in the 1996 Summer Olympics. At the 1994 FINA World Championships, she won the 100- and 200-meter backstroke events, setting the meet record i ...

Liu Limin Liu Limin (; born March 27, 1976) is a former swimmer from China who won the silver medal in the 100 m butterfly at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. She attended college at the University of Nevada, Reno in the United States. ...

, and

Le Jingyi Le Jingyi (; born March 19, 1975, in Shanghai) is a former swimmer from China who won the gold medal in the 100 metres freestyle at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, USA. In 1992, Le won the silver medal in the 4×100 metres freestyle rela ...

to snatch the first medley relay title in a sterling time of 3:57.73, adding it to a medal tally of ten for the Chinese team in short-course swimming. At the

1994 World Aquatics Championships The 1994 FINA World Aquatics Championships were held in Rome, Italy between September 1 and September 11, 1994. Medal table Results Diving ;Men ;Women Open water swimming ;Men ;Women Swimming ;Men ;Women Synchronized swimmi ...

Rome, Italy Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, Dai won a total of three medals, two golds and one silver. In her first event, 400 m individual medley, Dai edged out the American duo Allison Wagner and Kristine Quance on the freestyle leg to take home the gold in 4:39.14, despite her accusations over China's doping scandal. Four days later, in the 100 m breaststroke, Dai earned a silver in 1:09.26, finishing behind Australia's

Samantha Riley Samantha Linette Pearl Riley (born 13 November 1972) is an Australian former competitive swimmer. She is of Aboriginal descent. She specialised in breaststroke and competed for Australia in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and the 1996 ...

by 1.57 seconds. She also gave her teammate Yuan Yuan a further reason to celebrate as the Chinese handed a medal lock in the pool with a two–three finish. In the 4 × 100 m medley relay, Dai, along with He Cihong, Liu Limin, and Le Jingyi, established a new world record to claim the gold medal in a sterling time of 4:01.67, slashing 0.87 seconds off the standard set by the U.S. Olympic team from the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

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. When Japan hosted the

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...

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by the following month, Dai added five more medals to her career hardware: three golds and two silver. In the 400 m individual medley, Dai lost her defense of capturing the title to her teammate and 1992 Olympic champion Lin Li by over five seconds, ending up only with a silver in 4:40.47. Rebounding from two losses, including 200 m breaststroke, at these Games, Dai continued to build her illustrious career with two gold medals each in the 100 m breaststroke (1:09.87), and in the 200 m individual medley (2:15.42). In the absence of Le Jingyi from the Games, Dai helped her teammates He Cihong, Liu Limin, and newcomer Shan Ying defend their medley relay title in 4:07.69, more than six seconds outside the world record. Dai also sought a second bid to defend three of her titles for the

1995 FINA Short Course World Championships The 2nd FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) was an international Swimming (sport), swimming meet held on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 30 November until 3 December 1995. The meet featured 32 events swum in a Short course (swimmi ...

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, but she withdrew from the Chinese championships in

Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...

that effectively ended her swimming career. Some reports claimed that she had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and anabolic steroids.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dai, Guohong 1977 births Living people Chinese female breaststroke swimmers Chinese female medley swimmers Asian Games medalists in swimming World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming Medalists at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) World record setters in swimming Sportspeople from Liaoyang Swimmers from Liaoning Asian Games gold medalists for China Asian Games silver medalists for China Medalists at the 1994 Asian Games Swimmers at the 1994 Asian Games 20th-century Chinese sportswomen

See also

References