BEIJING — Yu Zidi made history last year aged 12 when she became the youngest-ever medalist at the swimming world championships. Now a teenager, she headlines China’s bid for Asian Games domination and has Olympic glory in her sights.
The 13-year-old school girl with a pixie haircut stunned the sporting world last year with a series of eye-popping times.
At the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, she helped China reach the 4x200-meter (m) women’s freestyle relay final.
She did not swim in the final but China came third, earning Yu a historic bronze for swimming in the heats.
Yu just missed out on medals in the 200-m and 400-m individual medley events, and the 200-m butterfly, coming fourth in all three races.
In November at China’s National Games, having just turned 13, she clocked a blistering 2:07.41 in the women’s 200-m medley for what was then an Asian record.
While training with the China team in Beijing, she told local media this month she was “excited” for her Asian Games debut.
“Train well, don’t slack off. Demonstrate the level of your training and work hard to break past yourself,” she said, according to state news agency Xinhua.
The Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, open on Sept. 19.
A coach, Ha Sinan, once described Yu with a Chinese saying that translates as “a newborn calf fearless of tigers.”
But the teenager has spoken of struggling to deal with the heavy load placed on her.
Yu grew up in the city of Baoding, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) south of Beijing.
She started swimming aged six and since then has juggled schoolwork with training.
“Being in class all day and still having to train was really tiring,” she said in January.
“Sometimes I was so tired I could fall asleep even while eating,” she said at an event celebrating Hebei province’s National Games wins.
Yu said she “never considered quitting” and always dreamed of being a national champion. AFP
