The PolyU community shared the glory of the 22-year-old national athlete Zhang Lin who recently smashed the world record and won in the men’s 800 meter freestyle category of the 13th FINA World Championships. In fact, since 2002, a group of PolyU sports science experts have been backing him up along the road to a world-class swimmer.

Professionals at PolyU have been providing sports injury prevention and performance optimization training to Zhang since he was 16. The target is to train his core muscles, improve his muscle balance, uplift his energy and explosive power and to rectify some of his swimming techniques.

Last year, experts at The Hong Kong Jockey Club Sports Medicine and Health Sciences Centre tailor-made an intensive functional training programme for Zhang to help raise his overall performance. For eight hours a day, six days a week, the University’s trainers were by his side sweating through a variety of land exercises including boxing, playing track mill and rehabilitation ball, and assisting him to overcome hardships along the days and nights of training.

Looking ahead, PolyU will continue its efforts in the education and research of sports medicine, sports science, sports rehabilitation and sports health for the benefit of mankind.