Yu Zidi, a 13-year-old middle schooler from Baoding, China, was set to race the women's 400-meter individual medley final Wednesday at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, chasing a third gold medal in four days and closing in on one of swimming's marquee world records along the way.
Yu opened the meet with a Games-record 2:05.08 in the 200m butterfly, then followed it with an even faster swim in the 200m individual medley, touching in 2:06.10 — an Asian record and just 0.40 seconds off Canadian star Summer McIntosh's world record of 2:05.70, according to Olympics.com's coverage of the meet. She posted the fastest qualifying time in the 400m IM heats, 4:39.43, setting up Wednesday's final.
The performances have made Yu, discovered by a coach at a water park at age six, one of the sport's most closely watched prospects. At the 2025 World Aquatics Championships she became the youngest medalist in that event's history at 12, winning bronze in the 4x200m freestyle relay, as Al Jazeera detailed in a profile ahead of the Games.
Her rise has also revived debate over age minimums in elite swimming: World Aquatics generally requires athletes to be 14 to compete at senior world championships, a threshold Yu has not yet reached. She qualified for this meet by hitting the sport's "A" cut at Chinese nationals, which falls under different eligibility rules than the world championships.
Asked about her own performance after the 200m IM, Yu was characteristically matter-of-fact rather than triumphant.
"I'm happier with the second gold medal than the first."
— Yu Zidi
She noted her technique still needs work, singling out her head position and leg movement. If she matches or approaches her recent form in the 400m IM final, she will complete a rare individual treble at a major multi-sport Games — and put herself, at 13, within shouting distance of a world record that active Olympic medalists have yet to touch.