Yu Zidi
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
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| Born | October 16, 2012 Baoding, Hebei, China | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||
| Club | Hebei Taihua Jinye Swimming Club | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 于子迪 | ||||||||||||||
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Yu Zidi (Chinese: 于子迪; pinyin: Yú Zǐdí,[1] born October 16, 2012[2]) is a Chinese swimmer. She gained worldwide recognition when she was chosen to represent China at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships at 12 years old.
Biography
[edit]Early life and career
[edit]Yu was born in Baoding on October 16, 2012. When she was six years old, her father took her to a water park to cool off during the summer. She was noticed by a swim coach, who encouraged her to begin swimming competitively. Three years later, she moved to Hengshui and began training at the Hebei Taihua Jinye Swimming Club.[2]
In 2024, at 11 years old, Yu competed in a 400 m individual medley, aiming to participate in the 2024 Summer Olympics. Her time was 4:40.97, about two seconds short of the qualifying time of 4:38.53.[3] Yu has been trained by her teammate, the Olympic medalist Li Bingjie, whom she considers her "idol"[4] and has affectionately compared to an "older sister".[1]
2025 season
[edit]At the national championships in China in May 2025, Yu swam the 200m individual medley with a time of 2:10.63, winning the silver medal and setting the record for the fastest time ever for a 12-year-old in that discipline.[5][6][4] Based on her results at the national championship, she was chosen to participate in the 2025 World Aquatics Championships. While World Aquatics typically requires swimmers to be 14 years old to attend, Yu was eligible because her times met the association's "A" standard.[7] Following this, she attracted worldwide media coverage, including comparisons to young champion swimmers Summer McIntosh (who won gold at the World Championships at 15),[5][4] Katie Ledecky (who won Olympic gold at 15), and Kyoko Iwasaki (who won Olympic gold at 14).[8] She is the second-youngest swimmer to ever appear at the World Aquatics Championships, after Bahrain's Alzain Tareq, who debuted at age 10 at the 2015 edition.[9]
In her first event of the Championships in Singapore, Yu qualified for the final of the 200m individual medley.[10][11] In the final, she finished in fourth place with a time of 2:09.21, 0.06 seconds behind bronze medalist Mary-Sophie Harvey of Canada.[7] She was fourth as well in her second individual event, the 200m butterfly, with a time of 2:06.43, 0.31 seconds behind Australia's Elizabeth Dekkers. Yu swam in the heats for the Chinese team in the 4×200 m freestyle relay, helping them qualify to the final. She was replaced in the final by Liu Yaxin, but shared in the team's bronze medal win, becoming the youngest swimmer to win a medal at the World Aquatics Championships. The Sydney Morning Herald further identified her as the youngest swimmer to win a global championship medal since 12-year-old Inge Sørensen's bronze in the 200m breaststroke at the 1936 Summer Olympics.[12] Yu finished in Singapore with the 400m individual medley, where she again placed fourth.[13]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Race, Retta (23 May 2025). "12-Yr-Old Yu Zidi Introduces Herself To The World Along With Bonus Training Footage". SwimSwam.
- ^ a b "Profile | Who is Yu Zidi, the Chinese 12-year-old making waves at World Aquatics Championships?". South China Morning Post. 28 July 2025. Archived from the original on 28 July 2025. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
- ^ Decent, Tom (24 April 2024). "The 11-year-old Chinese swimmer who was two seconds away from the Olympics". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 22 June 2024. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
- ^ a b c "Who is 12-year-old Yu Zidi? Top facts about the Chinese swimming prodigy". olympics.com.
- ^ a b Church, Ben (26 July 2025). "The 12-year-old taking the swimming world by storm". CNN. Archived from the original on 27 July 2025. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
- ^ Wade, Stephen (17 July 2025). "Yu Zidi is only 12 but she stuns the swim world with some of the year's fastest times". Associated Press. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
- ^ a b Griffin, Sean (28 July 2025). "12-Year-Old Yu Zidi Clocks 2:09.21 To Take 4th In 200 IM World Championship Final". SwimSwam. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
- ^ Abdi, Nasra (17 July 2025). "Twelve-year-old Chinese swimmer takes stunning times to world championships". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
- ^ Decent, Tom (26 July 2025). "A Chinese swimmer born in 2012 is ready to break an 89-year-old record". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
- ^ "12-year-old debuts at world swim championships". ESPN. 27 July 2025. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
- ^ "China's Yu makes debut on world stage, 12-year-old doesn't disappoint". South China Morning Post. 27 July 2025. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
- ^ Race, Retta (31 July 2025). "2025 Worlds, Day 5 Asia Recap: China's 12-Yr-Old Yu Zidi Becomes Youngest-Ever Medalist". SwimSwam. Retrieved 31 July 2025.
- ^ Race, Retta (3 August 2025). "2025 Worlds, Day 8 Asia Recap: 12-Yr-Old Yu Zidi Wrangles Up Another Fourth-Place Finish". SwimSwam. Retrieved 3 August 2025.
