Yu Zidi, a 12-year-old Chinese student, has been described as a “phenomenon” after achieving the fastest recorded time for her age group in the 200m in the singles category medley during China’s national championships.
She secured second place in the event, clocking a time of 2 minutes and 10.63 seconds, finishing just behind Yu Yuting, an Olympic finalist from 2024.
If she had posted this time during the preliminary rounds of the previous year’s Paris Olympics, it would have seen her advance to the semi-finals.
The international governing body, World Aquatics, shared a post stating “12-year-old phenomenon alert” on their official X account.
Approaching her 13th birthday in October, Yu may qualify for the national team representing China at the World Championships scheduled in Singapore this July.
The performances of leading Chinese swimmers have received considerable attention leading up to the Paris Olympics.
China selected 11 athletes for the French Games from a cohort of 23 who were flagged for positive drug tests.
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Due to these positive results, the International Testing Agency (ITA) pledged to conduct tests on Chinese athletes eight times, double the typical frequency between the beginning of 2024 and the Paris Olympics.
Adam Peaty, after finishing fourth in the 4x100m relay against Great Britain, raised concerns about the legitimacy of China’s victories, stating, “there’s no sense in winning if it’s not done fairly.”
Among the four gold medalists, Qin Haiyang and Sun Jiajun were included in the group of 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for banned substances before the Tokyo Olympics.
The China Anti-Doping Agency indicated that the swimmers who failed tests leading up to Paris 2024 had inadvertently consumed heart medication trimetazidine, and foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian asserted that the country maintains a strict “zero tolerance for doping” policy.