There were cheers and squeals and fluttered flags, sustained and perhaps a little pointed, as Zhang Yufei walked out for the women’s 100m butterfly semi-final at 8.38pm inside the agreeably boisterous La Defénse Arena.
Zhang waved and smiled, always looking straight ahead, then reeled off a 56.15sec race to take second place and book a spot in the final. All Olympic athletes need to find that neutral space, to close out the noise, to create a kind of light around themselves. In Zhang’s case, as with 10 other Chinese swimmers in Paris, this will involve a note of additional defiance at a competition already charged with its own note of wider tension.
