Chinese swimmer Yu Zidi, 11, making world sit up and take notice, but officials happy to let her take her own time
- Yu made the final of both the 400-metre individual medley and freestyle at the Chinese national championships in Shenzhen
- But the primary school girl will not compete at the Paris Olympics as China has already reached its quota of 26 female swimmers
An 11-year-old wonderkid has been making waves at the Chinese National Swimming Championships in Shenzhen, finishing the women’s 400-metres individual medley two seconds shy of the qualifying time for the Paris Olympics.
Yu Zidi’s four minutes and 40.97 seconds on Sunday secured her second place in the final and would have been enough to earn her a spot at the World Aquatic Championships in Qatar in February.
The Hong Kong record for the women’s 400m individual medley is Chloe Cheng’s time of 4:48.58, which she took from Siobhan Haughey in 2021.
Despite grabbing the attention of the swimming world, Yu’s time was still only enough to finish as runner-up in the race as she touched the wall one second after Yu Yiting.
Yu Yiting, 18, was one of the 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ), a prescription heart drug that can enhance performance, before the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
The news of the positive tests broke last week, forcing the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) to say it was aware of the incident and accepted China’s explanation the tests had been contaminated.