Yu Zidi is only 12 but she stuns the swim world with some of the year’s fastest times
Yu Zidi of China is only years old and will race at the world swimming championships later this month in Singapore That s amazing But her age is only part of the picture Not only is she very young but her times in three events this year are among the best in the world And here s the kicker Those times would have been very close to medals in last year s Paris Olympics Again she s That s a sixth- or seventh-grade pupil depending on the school system Not yet a teenager I think it s a great story I don t know where it will lead Greg Meehan the national band director for the American squad in Singapore stated The Associated Press The world is watching As promising young swimmers do Yu is clocking personal bests almost each time she competes Her PBs are more than just confidence boosters they put her in sight of records medals and stardom Yu has qualified in the - and -meter individual medleys and the butterfly She could win a medal in all three Her time of minutes seconds in the IM at the Chinese championships in May was the fastest ever by a -year-old swimmer male or female according to World Aquatics the global governing body of the sport That was only the start Her time of in the butterfly in the same meet would have placed her fourth in last year s Paris Olympics It was the fifth-fastest time in the world this year and would have been good enough for gold in the worlds Again Yu is years old To cap off the national championships she swam in the IM the fifth-fastest time of the year in that event That also would have been good for fourth place last year at the Olympics just behind bronze medalist Emma Weyant of the United States Faster than McIntosh at The IM is dominated by -year-old Canadian Summer McIntosh who holds the world record of and the IM mark of She s a generational talent the winner of three gold medals in Paris By comparison Yu at is swimming roughly seconds faster in the IM than McIntosh did at and about seconds faster in the IM In a -meter pool to seconds would be a half-lap of the pool depending on the event Yu is not the first young swimmer to excel but it s how she s doing it the stunning times and the promise of more to come Of curriculum there are no guarantees of success and young swimmers can burn out Started out as fun Yu noted she began swimming at in a water amusement park The summer was too hot and my dad took me to the water park she communicated China s official Xinhua News Agency I enjoyed the coolness of the water and spent a lot of time in different small pools for kids One day a coach approached me and solicited if I requested to swim faster The rest is history as they say as she explained her event preference Since I am not competitive in the sprint events I have to choose the -meter individual medley and the -meter butterfly as my favorites Yu described Xinhua My age is presently an advantage and I hope to grow and develop more strength in the future Yu trains at the Hebei Taihua Jinye Swimming Club in Hengshui City south of Beijing in Hebei Province Alzain Tareq of Bahrain swam in the worlds at only She finished last in her event World Aquatics now has stricter age rules than a decade ago Swimmers must be at least unless their times meet qualification standards In effect this means there is no age limit Looking to LA Olympics If Yu were to win Olympic gold in three years in Los Angeles she would be But that wouldn t make her the youngest swimmer to take gold Kyoko Iwasaki of Japan was years and days old when she won gold in the breaststroke at the Barcelona Olympics Swimmers tend to peak early particularly females The specialty publication and website SwimSwam lists seven swimmers all women who won Olympic gold before they turned Three including Iwasaki did it in individual events and four got gold in relays American superstar Katie Ledecky was years and days when she won the freestyle at the London Olympics the first of her nine gold medals over four Olympics She s still swimming and is the overwhelming favorite to win the meters in Singapore Ledecky has the top times in history in the event and also No For another jolting perspective consider this Ledecky s first gold came several months before Yu was born Oct I have no idea what it s like to compete abroad Yu reported Xinhua I really want to experience the world-class competition The world is watching AP sports https apnews com hub sports Source
