Fu won a bronze medal in the 100-meter backstroke by tying for third place with Canadian swimmer Kylie Masse. She finished in a national record time of 58.76. Throughout the Olympics, her cheerful interviews and goofy demeanor made her very popular. Mark Dreyer, a Beijing-based sports writer, noted that Fu exemplified "a positive trend in Chinese sports whereby athletics was undergoing a transition away from "manufactured Olympic champions" from the state-run sports system who were effective at bringing home medals but had cardboard personalities and inspired little devotion among fans'. Her series of facial expressions spread widely in the Internet, and her sayings such as "I've already spent my supernatural energy!"（Chinese: 我已使出了洪荒之力！）become very popular catchwords.