Born in Baoding, not far from Beijing, on 14 October 2012, Yu Zidi is already a major presence in the pool, with her 14th birthday still to come. She has been leaving rivals much more physically developed than her behind and getting close to world-record times. The last 24 hours at the Asian Games in Tokyo have been a good illustration: first came gold in the 200m butterfly, with the fastest time in the history of the competition, then another victory in the 200m individual medley, perhaps the more striking of the two. Yu Zidi stopped the clock at 2:06.10, just four tenths behind Canada’s 20-year-old Summer McIntosh, who set the world record in the event last year. It is the second-fastest time ever.
And yet Yu Zidi talks about these performances with disarming innocence. “I swam so-so,” she said afterwards. “I need to improve my leg movement. I still have a lot to work on to reach a high level. But I’m very excited. Winning this second gold medal makes me even happier than the first.” China and the rest of Asian swimming are already watching closely, and on a performance like this Yu Zidi would have been in the medals even at the Olympics. Her case is unusual even by the standards of elite swimming. Last year, at just 12, she had already left World Aquatics facing an awkward regulatory problem by qualifying for the World Championships in Singapore in the 200m individual medley: the international governing body does not allow athletes under 14 to compete, but it also recognises qualifying times achieved in official meets. Yu Zidi had comfortably cleared the standard, earning her place in the field despite the controversy that followed. “We’ll examine the situation and assess whether we need to do more on the regulatory side,” officials admitted. “We never thought we would have to answer these questions. Our standards are so demanding that we didn’t think a 12-year-old would reach them.”
That was how Yu Zidi’s rapid rise began. She narrowly missed bronze in her signature event before taking a medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay, becoming the youngest medallist in World Championships history and the second-youngest ever, while coming close to a record that has stood since the 1930s. Now she has two Asian Games gold medals. What comes next is impossible to know. Los Angeles 2028 is already on the horizon.