Aussie coach confident former world champ can bounce back

It's uncertain whether Ning Zetao still has what it takes to compete against the world's best swimmers leading up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

But one thing's for sure: He's making an effort to show he's not finished.

While Sun Yang and Fu Yuanhui, his former teammates on China's national squad, have been making splashes at the Asian Games trials this week in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, Ning is quietly focusing on his own workout thousands of miles away in Brisbane, Australia.

He has not appeared at any domestic competition since his last race at the 2017 National Games in September.

The mysterious status of Ning, Asia's first world champion in the men's 100m freestyle (2015), has raised questions about his competitiveness, but his long-time Australia coach Matt Brown exudes confidence in a strong comeback.

"I personally believe he has every capability of being better than what he's ever been before," Brown, who reunited with Ning in February, told China Daily from the sideline of the Asian Games trials in Shanxi.

"He's made a commitment (to regain his form) and he is in Australia training. We've got his general fitness and physical strength back and we are almost ready to start specific speed training."

Ning's absence at the trials for this year's Asiad in Indonesia is in sharp contrast to his career-changing performance at the 2014 Asian Games in South Korea, where he shot to fame after winning four freestyle gold medals in his international debut before his breakthrough victory in the 100m at the 2015 worlds in Kazan, Russia.

After Kazan, Ning's popularity soared across the sports and entertainment sectors, with fans going crazy for his athletic prowess and handsome physique.

He garnered an avalanche of interest from sponsors, TV producers and even fashion show organizers, all hoping to connect their brands with the social-media superstar.

The overnight fame soon proved too much for Ning. A series of distractions, highlighted by a feud with the sport's governing body over endorsement deals, prevented him from concentrating on training and competition.

He was eliminated from the 100m final at the Rio Olympics after clocking 48.37 sec -almost a full second slower than his personal best achieved in 2014－in the semis.

He was later expelled from the national team for his continuous disagreement with the governing body.

"That was challenging for him ... there was so much pressure," said Brown, who worked with Ning's former Chinese coach, Ye Jin, to help him improve his conditioning before the 2015 worlds.

Due to his exclusion from the national program, Ning returned to his native Henan province in early 2017 to train without much funding or logistical support, but stayed motivated to prove at the National Games that he remains the best sprinter in the country.

"He found it very hard to sleep and eat during the National Games," said Brown, who was with Ning at the Tianjin meet.

To the delight of his coach, Ning clocked 47.92 sec, his first sub-48 mark in official competitions in about two years, to win the 100m and added another gold in the 50m in Tianjin.

"That reinforced his belief that he is still capable of doing really good things," said Brown, who has more than three decades' experience coaching elite swimmers

Ning took a long break after the nationals, traveling to the United States and Italy to experience a bit of life away from the pool to refresh himself from the turbulent past two years.

"I did a lot of things other than swimming such as learning to drive, cooking, going fishing and golfing. I even successfully baked an apple pie," Ning said in an earlier interview on 163.com.

"The thing is you can't have long breaks and expect to be competitive," said Brown. "But it's good to have a balance to realize that it's just part of your life, not all of it."

A refocused Ning has been fully investing himself in Brown's nine-sessions-a-week program, including gym workouts, to prepare for the second domestic trial in June for the Asian Games, which start on Aug 18 in Jakarta.

"If he swims to the level that I think he can, he should put some very fast times on the board," said Brown.

"From there we could start working toward the Tokyo 2020 Olympics one step at a time."