Yu Zidi

In this Chinese name, the family name is Yu.

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.

Yu Zidi

Personal information
Born	(2012-10-16) October 16, 2012 (age 12) Baoding, Hebei, China
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Club	Hebei Taihua Jinye Swimming Club
Medal record Women's swimming Representing  China World Championships (LC) 2025 Singapore 4×200 m freestyle
Chinese name
Chinese	于子迪
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yú Zǐdí IPA [y̌ tsɹ̩̀tǐ]

Biography

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.^[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

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]