Gen Z at Two Sessions | Zhang Yufei: Double Olympic Champion and youngest "butterfly queen"

As a newly elected deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) in 2023, Zhang Yufei, a swimmer from China’s Jiangsu Province, who won two gold and two silver medals at the Tokyo Olympics, attended the NPC meeting with proposals on fitness-for-all and the integration of sports and education. According to her proposal, quality resources of competitive sports should be brought to schools, and athletes, active and retired, must engage schools and communities with professional guidance.

As a representative of sports, Zhang proposes that athletes can contribute to social and youth sports, and that the young generation can develop stronger interest in sports through education." For competitive sports, it’s important to cultivate an echelon of young athletes, so that the baton can pass on without a break. For social sports, I hope that young people in schools can also gain better fitness through more exercise."