Olympic swimmers weren't the only people competing in the pool in recent days. Police officers from Qingpu District were also putting the swimming skills to the test on Saturday.
Officials from the district, which covers an area with numerous rivers and 107 water accesses to neighboring Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in western city, have decided police need to be good swimmers to perform their jobs properly.
Nearly 17 percent of the district is made up of water, meaning police are often faced with emergencies and crimes that happen on the water.
"That's why we decide to encourage police officers from all departments in our district to join in the campaign to strengthen their swimming skills," Lei Jianguang, spokesman for the Qingpu District police said on Saturday after a police swimming competition.
Up to 128 district police officers took part in seven competitions in the professional swimming pool at Oriental Green Boat, a student camping site, on Saturday. The event was meant to evaluate a swimming training program that began three months ago.
Police officers in the city are encouraged to improve their physical fitness and professional skills through hard training. A citywide police training campaign was kicked off during May.
"As a district that is home to a rich river network, we take up swimming to strengthen our bodies and will," said Zhang Jinxi, head of the district's marine police station. Zhang took second and sixth at two competitions on Saturday.
Zhang joined the marine police station three months ago, when he started to take up swimming training with his three colleagues. Before that, Zhang says he had no swimming training at all.
"We practiced from 6:30am to 8am every day for the past three months and hired professional coaches," Zhang said.
Zhang said the skill helps them clamp down on crimes on the water and catch those who jump into the river to escape arrest, a common practice in the district.
"It's also very important that we could rescue people who are drowning and deal with other water emergencies," he added.
Lei said the force would hold long distance races and a soccer match among the officers in the second half of the year to propel the police training campaign.