At 13, Yu Zidi shines at the Asian Games, breaking records and winning golds, while remaining humble and focused on her passion for swimming.

Updated on: Sep 21, 2026, 20:38:40 IST

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Mumbai: Unlike the swimmers who went by before and after her, Yu Zidi did not stop for the cameras or strike a pose during the name announcement for the women’s 200m individual medley final at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Monday. A day earlier, after winning the women’s 200m butterfly gold for her first individual major event medal, she analysed her performance as “only so-so”.

This is a 13-year-old, by the way.

For perhaps the first time at these Games on Monday, the kid acted her age. Yu grinned while still floating in the water and looking up at the screen of the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

Looking up at the screen during the Chinese National Games last November, Yu was unable to figure out the timing when her competitor, Yu Yiting, broke the news to her. The 200m medley Asian record was hers—at 2:07.41.

Make that 2:06.10 now. Yiting, the defending champion and favourite for the final, was in the adjacent lane on Monday too when her compatriot took her 200m medley crown, earning a second gold medal in as many days.

The new Asian record is in the name of this Chinese wunderkind. The world record, set by Canadian sensation Summer McIntosh, isn’t too far away. McIntosh was 18 when she set the bar at 02:05.70 in June 2025. Yu will turn 14 in a month, and is 0.40 seconds shy of it.

At 13, in her first multi-sport event, Yu is already a two-time gold medallist with another event to come (400m IM on Wednesday). She took the 200m butterfly title defeating compatriot Chang Mohan with a new Games record. She took the 200m medley title from compatriot Yiting, the two-time Paris Games medallist, with an Asian record.

Not too long before these record-breaking feats, swimming happened by chance for Yu.

Born in China’s Hebei in October 2012, the six-year-old was taken to a water park by her father during the summer holidays when she was spotted by a swim coach. She moved to the Hebei Taihua Jinye Swimming Club, where her natural feel for water was groomed.

In 2024, she competed in China’s national championships and was a little over two seconds adrift of qualifying for the Paris Olympics in 400m medley. The same year, the pressure of studying and training simultaneously cast doubt on her pool progress. Not for long.

“I realised that swimming had become an indispensable part of my life,” Yu told World Aquatics in 2025, “and I simply couldn’t live without it.”

And simply couldn’t do without making waves.

At 12, she set the quickest 200m medley time in her age group across gender at China’s national championships. She qualified for the 2025 World Championships in Singapore, became the youngest swimmer in history to compete in a Worlds final, ended up fourth in three individual events, and helped China reach the 4x200m women’s freestyle relay final. Although she did not race in the final, Yu shared China’s bronze medal as the youngest ever Worlds medallist.

When she broke the 200 medley Asian record for the first time last November, it erased a 13-year mark held by China’s Ye Shiwen, who set it at the 2012 London Olympics. Yu wasn’t even born then.

Yu trains alongside multiple-time Olympic medallist Li Bingjie, whom she considers her idol and “like a sister”. Yu was laughing away with Yiting after Monday’s medal ceremony.

This kid is, evidently, likeable outside the pool. This kid is, evidently, phenomenal inside the pool. This kid is the talk of these Asian Games in swimming. This kid could soon be the talk of the world in swimming.

“I don’t fully understand what everyone is talking about,” she told World Aquatics. “I don’t care about statistics or records.”

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