13-year-old prodigy Yu Zidi breaks Asian record

Only one in the world is faster

13-year-old prodigy breaks swimming time record

At 13 years old, most children in the world have not yet thought about competitive sports. Yu Zidi, on the other hand, has done it – and knows how to inspire.

Sensation at China’s National Games: 13-year-old Yu Zidi first breaks Asian record. In Shenzhen, the girl swam the 200-meter individual medley in 2:07.41 minutes, setting a new record. This year, only Canadian world record holder Summer McIntosh was faster.

Zidi’s time beat the previous record set by Ye Shiwen, who won the 400 meter individual medley with a world record at the 2012 London Olympics at the age of 15. On the final stretch, Ye was even faster than American Ryan Lochte.

There is already discussion about Yu at the World Cup in Singapore in the summer. There he received bronze at the age of twelve because he was used in the qualifying heats of China’s 4×200 meter freestyle relay. He was no longer a member of the team in the final. Even so, he remains the youngest medalist in an international swimming competition since 1936. At that time, twelve-year-old Inge Sörensen won bronze in the 200 meter breaststroke at the Olympic Games in Berlin.

Yu had previously narrowly missed out on a medal in the 200m individual medley – he was six hundredths of a second shy of taking bronze.

Special permission is required to take part in the World Cup. Usually the minimum age is 14 years. DSV sports director Christian Hansmann criticized this: “I think putting a twelve-year-old girl in front of a World Cup backdrop with 5,000 spectators, with high pressure from the media and coaches, is premature. She has already put a lot of training miles on her arms and legs, and at twelve, when she grows up. I wonder what will happen to her at 18 or 20.”