Lin Yuwei competes in the women's 100m hurdles during the National Athletics Grand Prix in Yulin, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, on July 14, 2025. Photo courtesy of Lin Yuwei

Back in regular training and already looking ahead to the Asian Games in 2026, Chinese star hurdler Lin Yuwei views the 15th National Games as an important checkpoint rather than a finish line.

Lin said she did not expect history when she stepped onto the track in November for the mixed 4x100-meter relay at China's 15th National Games. A podium finish would have been satisfying. A time under 40.50 seconds would have been, in her words, "already very good."

Instead, the 26-year-old hurdler and her Fujian teammates delivered something far more memorable.

Their winning time of 40.37 seconds not only secured gold in the event's National Games debut but also set a Chinese national record and became the second-fastest performance in the world, just 0.07 seconds shy of the world record.

"It was beyond our expectations," Lin told the Global Times. "Because our training suggested a time under 40.50 seconds."

The relay, run in a woman-woman-man-man sequence, is a relatively new addition to international athletics. After its domestic debut in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province, it is set to make its Olympic appearance at the 2028 Los Angeles Games. For Lin, the race represented both a milestone and a glimpse of what may still be possible.

"Our hope is that next year we can challenge the world's best time," she said. During the interview, Lin also discussed her post-National Games goals and her perspective on the online attention surrounding her.  

Aiming for next game

Looking back on the 4x100-meter mixed relay, Lin said the result wouldn't have been possible without the team's close coordination. "Over the past two months, we have been fully focused, working toward the same goal: winning gold in the competition."

Four days after her relay triumph, Lin returned to the track for her signature event, the women's 100m hurdles. In the competitive final, where all three medalists finished under 13 seconds, the defending champion secured bronze with 12.94 seconds.

"I started well, but when others caught up at the fifth hurdle, I became slightly unsettled and hit the barrier. I hit another at the ninth hurdle. Without those errors, I believe I could have been 0.05 seconds faster," she recalled.

In her view, mistakes are an inevitable part of competition. "All we can do is review them afterward, work to improve our weaknesses, and aim to approach next year's Asian Games trials and the Games themselves in even better form."
Lin's ambitions extend well beyond the National Games. Her personal best remains 12.74 seconds, set when she won gold at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou in 2023, a victory that also secured her qualification for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Her next dream is clear: breaking China's long-standing national record of 12.64 seconds, set by Zhang Yu in 1993.

"I hope the next time I break my personal best, it will be by setting a national record," Lin said. "My license plate number is 1263. Our national record 12.64 seconds, and I hope I can run faster than 12.64 seconds."

Staying true

Born in Sanming, a city in East China's Fujian Province, in 1999, Lin's journey into athletics was connected to her health. 

She first got into track and field because she was physically weak as a child and her father wanted her to strengthen her body through sports.
What started as a way to build fitness gradually turned into a career, as Lin progressed through multiple rounds of selection before emerging on the national stage. She first gained widespread attention in 2015, winning gold in the 4x100-meter relay at the inaugural National Youth Games. By 2021, she had become China's national champion in the 100-meter hurdles.

Now 26, Lin has witnessed the steady rise of Chinese women's hurdling from within. While encouraged by the progress, she remains realistic about the challenges ahead.

"I personally think Chinese women's hurdling is progressing," she said. "But there is still a gap between us and the very top level of the world."
Closing that gap, she says, will take collective effort across generations.

"While we senior athletes run at the front, we also hope that the sisters of younger generation can grow quickly, helping to deepen our country's talent pool across all events," she said.

Lin's immediate focus is the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, where she hopes to defend her title.

"My next goal is to earn a spot on the Asian Games team," she said. "Then I want to compete against Japanese athletes and, together with my teammates, keep this gold medal in China."

With success has come scrutiny. Lin acknowledges that online attention once weighed heavily on her, to the point where she avoided social media before competitions.
Lin said she wasn't very mature at the time and struggled with negative online comments, so she took a six-month break from Douyin to focus on training before the 2023 Asian Games.

Her approach has since changed.

"I think as long as you keep doing the same things consistently and don't worry too much about how others see you, that's enough," she said. "As long as your conscience is clear and you stay true to your original purpose."

For Lin, growth is not only about faster times.

"Using results to speak is one part of it," she said. "But while improving physically, I believe your mental strength has to grow as well. Only then can you go higher and see farther."