Yu Zidi Age, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Yu Zidi

• Yu Zidi hails from Baoding, Hebei Province, China.

• Yu started swimming at the age of 6. She is specialised in longer, technical events such as the medley and butterfly.

• In an interview, Zidi mentioned that her father once took her to a water park to cool off during the summer holidays. There, she was noticed by a swim coach, who encouraged her to begin swimming competitively.

• Three years later, at the age of 9, she moved to Hengshui and began training at the Hebei Taihua Jinye Swimming Club. The club also sponsored her schooling, meals, and accommodation.

• By age 11, she had won various national junior titles in China.

• In early 2024, she stunned national swimming circles by qualifying for senior-level Chinese Nationals while still in primary school.

• In 2024, Yu competed in the 400m individual medley, aiming to qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics. However, she finished just under two-and-a-half seconds outside of the qualifying time. Her time was 4:40.97, and the qualifying time was 4:38.53.

• At the 2024 Chinese Nationals, she gave her personal bests that met World Aquatics ‘A’ qualifying standards despite being only 11.

• During the local Chinese competitions, she became the youngest Chinese swimmer to break 2:10 in the women’s 200 m Individual Medley.

• Yu has been trained by the Olympic medalist Li Bingjie, whom she also considers her “idol”. She also considered her older sister.

• In early 2025, during the Chinese swimming trials, Yu’s time of 4:35.53 in the 400m individual medley would have placed her fourth in the same event at the Paris Games.
  

  Yu Zidi during a swimming competition

• In May 2025, at the national championships in China, 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.

• Her impressive performance at the national championship earned her a spot to compete in the 2025 World Aquatics Championships. Although the World Aquatics typically requires swimmers to be at least 14 years old to participate, Yu was eligible because her times met the association’s “A” standard in 2024.

• Soon after this, she gained international media attention, and she was compared to other young champion swimmers such as Summer McIntosh, who won gold at the World Championships at the age of 15; Katie Ledecky, who won Olympic gold at 15; and Kyoko Iwasaki, who won Olympic gold at 14.

• She is the second-youngest swimmer to compete at the World Aquatics Championships in 2025, after Bahrain’s Alzain Tareq, who made her debut at age 10 during the 2015 World Aquatics Championships.

• In her first event at the World Championships in Singapore, Yu qualified for the final of the 200 m individual medley. She finished the final in fourth place with a time of 2:09.21, just 0.06 seconds behind the bronze medalist, Mary-Sophie Harvey from Canada.
  

  Yu Zidi at the World Championships (2025), Singapore

• Yu Zidi’s time in the 200m butterfly was among the fastest in the world and narrowly missed earning an Olympic medal in 2024.

• She also recorded a strong time in the 400m individual medley, which was close to the pace needed for an Olympic podium finish.

• Yu’s time is faster than Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh at the same age. Notably, her 400m IM is 15 seconds faster than Summer McIntosh’s.