A ten-year-old Chinese girl has jumped into a tributary of the Yangtze River, her ankles tied together with string and her arms bound with cloth — as part of her training to swim the English Channel.

Her father at her side, Huang Li sliced through the water for three hours, propelling her body over a distance of nearly two miles (3.25km) with her dolphin-like style.

Only then did Huang Li’s mother tell her to stop so that she could feed her some cake.

Her mother said: “I know she can still continue, but I fear she might be in danger. It’s getting cold and she had only a bowl of noodles for lunch before she started swimming at 12.45pm.”

The feat is the latest sporting sensation in China, already in the grip of Olympic fever with less than a year to go before Beijing plays host to the Games next August. But Huang Li’s swim has also sparked debate over whether her parents should expose the child to such dangers.

Her father, a teacher, said the girl had insisted on the swim, sometimes paddling with her bound hands, as part of training for her dream of crossing the Channel. Huang Daosheng said: “It’s not dangerous because, first, her swimming skills are really good and second, I was swimming with her, staying close to her. I had her when I was 35, so she is my heart. I would never play around with her life.”

Huang Li, named after the local Lishui river in central Hunan province, got the idea of swimming with her limbs bound from a television programme. She could have seen pictures of swimmers in Georgia — bound at the ankles, knees, thighs and arms — in a style known as kolkhuri. According to legend, this swimming method was used in ancient times as a technique of psychological preparation and escape mechanism in case a warrior was taken prisoner. The Georgian swimmer Henry Kuprashvili swam kolkhuri-style across the Dardanelles in August 2002.

Mr Huang said he coaches his daughter himself because the family do not have the money to employ a professional. Li has been swimming since she was 6, with the dream of swimming the Channel. He said: “She asks me every day, ‘Can I achieve this? Is the English Channel wide? Are the waves really big?’.”

This summer China was transfixed by the exploits of an eight-year-old girl who ran 2,212 miles from her home on the southern island of Hainan to Beijing in 55 days. Her father trailed behind on a motorscooter. That feat drew widespread criticism that the child was being forced into excessive exercise that would damage her body and stunt her growth.

Under pressure

— As of March 2007, the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation requires swimmers to be at least 16 years old for a solo Channel attempt.

— Alison Streeter, with 43 crossings known as the Queen of the Channel, is chairwoman.

— She says that if children were allowed to swim there would be all sorts of complications: “I shudder to think about the old days, making kids do stuff like that”.

— “Some swimmers were being pushed into it. Some parents had been on the beach actually throwing stones on the kids to keep them in the water”.

— “A Channel swim is hard enough. When a child is involved, it’s just unnecessary. The Channel will still be there when they’re 16”

— “The biggest problem is how cold it is. As you hit the six or seven-hour mark, that’s when it starts to take its toll. If you're a young kid, you haven’t got the extra fat and resistance”

— “About 15 per cent body fat is the best body type. Some have done it with 10 per cent”

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