As a graduate student of Soochow University enrolled in the School of Physical Education in 2015, Sun Yang is a famous athlete in China's national swimming team, an Olympic gold medalist, and a world-record-holding competitive swimmer in the 1500-metre freestyle. Meanwhile, Sun was also awarded as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) twice at the FINA World Swimming Championships, respectively in August 2013 in Barcelona and August 2015 in Kazan.
As a student of Soochow University, Sun lived to the expectations of us Chinese, and earned himself a gold and a silver during the swimming competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. In the first-day's competition, Sun won the silver medal for the men's 400-meter freestyle, clocked 3 minutes 41.68 seconds. When it came to the third-day's competition, Sun earned the gold medal for the men's 200-meter freestyle final by beating famous swimmers like Chad le Clos (RSA) and Conor Dwyer (USA), clocked 1 minute 44.65 seconds. Though suffering from terrible cold and fever, Sun still ranked 16th in the preliminary of the men's 1500-meter freestyle held in the seventh racing day, clocked 15 minutes 1.97 seconds.
By beating the previous world record 14:34.56 kept in the following ten years set by famous Australian swimmer Grant Hackett at the FINA World Swimming Championships in Fukuoka in 2001, Sun created a new record for the men's 1500-meter freestyle in an earlier competition. During the men's 400-meter freestyle final at the 201s Summer Olympics in London, Sun earned the first gold medal for the game as a male Chinese swimmer. Also in the men's 1500-meter freestyle final held afterwards, Sun renewed the world record again by breaking the former one set by himself.
Along the road of championships, Sun also prepared for further education and greater achievements by participating in the Sports Pedagogy and Training Program set by the School of Physical Education of Soochow University. As a graduate enrolled in 2015, Sun made a keynote speech on behalf of the new graduate students at the 2015 University Opening Ceremony, where he expressed his determination to learn more in limited time, and make progresses with greater ambitions and responsibilities. When interviewed by the reporter, Sun remarked, "I'm pretty happy to be a student of Soochow University. And I hope that I can have more opportunities to communicate with all peers in the coming days. Also, I hope all my schoolmates could join in with me to learn for the objectives and ambitions in our hearts, and contribute to the university and our community by learning and applying useful knowledge."