Yu Zidi
Yu Zidi is a Chinese swimmer. She gained worldwide recognition when she was chosen to represent China at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships at 12years old.
Early life and career
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.In 2024, at 11years old, Yu competed in a 400m 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. Yu has been trained by her teammate, the Olympic medalist Li Bingjie, whom she considers her "idol" and has affectionately compared to an "older sister". She also considers Summer McIntosh to be a role model.
2025 season
At the national championships in China in May2025, 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. 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 14years old to attend, Yu was eligible because her times met the association's "A" standard. Following this, she attracted worldwide media coverage, including comparisons to young champion swimmers Summer McIntosh, Katie Ledecky, and Kyoko Iwasaki. 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.In her first event of the Championships in Singapore, Yu qualified for the final of the 200m individual medley. 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. 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. Yu finished in Singapore with the 400m individual medley, where she again placed fourth.