Only one in the world is faster
13-year-old prodigy swims record time
November 12, 2025 – 12:48 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
At the age of 13, most children in the world are not yet thinking about competitive sports. Yu Zidi, on the other hand, is already doing it – and knows how to inspire.
Sensation at the Chinese National Games: The first 13-year-old Yu Zidi broke the Asian record. In Shenzhen, the 13-year-old 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 last track, Ye was even faster than the American Ryan Lochte.
There had already been discussions about Yu at the World Cup in Singapore in the summer. There she received bronze as a twelve-year-old because she was used in the preliminary heat of the Chinese 4×200 meter freestyle relay. She was no longer on the team in the final. Nevertheless, she was the youngest medalist at an international swimming competition since 1936. At that time, twelve-year-old Inge Sörensen won bronze in the 200 meter breaststroke at the Olympics in Berlin.
Yu had previously narrowly missed out on a medal in the individual 200 meter medley – she was six hundredths of a second short of bronze.
A special permit was required for their participation in the World Cup. Normally the minimum age is 14 years. DSV sports director Christian Hansmann had criticized this: “I think putting a girl at twelve in front of a World Cup backdrop with 5,000 spectators, with the high pressure from the media and the coaches, is far too early. She already has a lot of training kilometers in her arms and legs, and that at twelve, when she is fully growing. I wonder what will happen to her at 18 or 20.”