Chinese 12-year-old Yu Zidi set for world stage after stunning swims
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Yu Zidi could be the next big thing in China swimming after her dominating performances at a tender age of 12.
PHOTO: AFP
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BEIJING – Chinese 12-year-old swimming sensation Yu Zidi could be the brightest young star at the 2025 World Championships in Singapore after producing a string of eye-popping performances this week.
Yu, in her striking “doggy” swim cap, rounded off a sensational China national swimming championships in Shenzhen by winning the women’s 400m individual medley by almost two seconds on May 24.
Roared on by packed crowds, she crushed a quality field in a lifetime best 4min 35.53sec.
Yu’s time was comfortably inside the world qualifying standard of 4:43.06, the fifth-fastest time of 2025 and would have been good enough for fourth place at the Paris Olympics.
Second was Chang Mohan, who touched more than a body length adrift in 4:37.33, followed by Li Bingjie in 4:38.66.
It came just a few days after the youngster’s 200m butterfly gold in a scarcely believable 2:06.83, seventh fastest in the world in 2025 and another time that would have garnered a fourth place in Paris.
“My lungs were about to explode!” Yu said after that win, according to state news agency Xinhua. “I didn’t know my time. I just focused on my pace, stroke by stroke.”
She started the week-long China championships by taking second in the 200m individual medley behind Paris Olympian Yu Yiting, with another world-qualifying time of 2:10.63.
That prompted the global governing body World Aquatics to post: “12-year-old sensation alert!” on X.
The China meet serves as trials for the World Championships, which take place in Singapore from July 27 to Aug 3, with the top two in each event eligible for selection, providing they have met the qualifying standard.
Yu said it would be “cool to compete internationally in a swimsuit adorned with the national flag and my doggy cap”, reported Xinhua, giving a nod to her black-and-white swim cap emblazoned with a cartoon puppy.
China’s swimming association said it would finalise its team for the worlds after the national championships concluded on May 24, without confirming if Yu would be included or giving a date for a squad announcement.
Yu, who turns 13 in October, trains in the northern province of Hebei and has been earmarked as a “prodigy” by Chinese state media since first making national headlines in 2024.
Fellow Hebei native 23-year-old Li, whom Yu has called an “idol”, may have been only third behind the 12-year-old, but she dominated the women’s freestyle in Shenzhen with golds in the 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m.
Men’s 100m freestyle world-record holder Pan Zhanle, 20, won four individual golds and teamed up with the returning three-time Olympic gold medallist Sun Yang, Wang Shun and Fei Liwei to win the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay. AFP
