China’s Yu Zidi has already burst onto the swimming scene, but the 12-year-old made more history at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships on Thursday.
Yu became the youngest ever medalist at the competition after being part of China’s bronze medal winning team in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay in Singapore.
Although she did not compete in Thursday’s final, Yu was eligible for a medal as she swam in the preliminary race to qualify her country for the final.
Australia’s team of Lani Pallister, Jamie Perkins, Brittany Castelluzzo and Mollie O’Callaghan won gold in a time of 7:39.35, with the US earning silver in 7:40.01 and China finishing almost three seconds after the Americans in third in 7:42.99.
Yu had narrowly missed out on an individual medal in the women’s 200m butterfly earlier on Thursday after finishing fourth, 0.31 seconds behind third-placed Elizabeth Dekkers of Australia.
She also finished fourth and just outside a medal position in the women’s 200m medley on Monday, touching the wall 0.06 seconds behind bronze winner Mary-Sophie Harvey of Canada.
She will have one more opportunity to win an individual medal at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships when she competes in the women’s 400m medley, with both the heats and the final on Sunday.
Yu’s participation in the World Aquatics Championships has led to questions over the competition’s eligibility rules. Swimming governing body World Aquatics has a minimum age requirement of 14 for the world championships, but Yu’s times are so fast that she qualifies regardless.
Brent Nowicki, the executive director of World Aquatics, admitted during the championships that the governing body will have to review its guidelines in the future.
“I didn’t think I’d have this conversation, but now I think we have to go back and say, ‘Is this appropriate?’” Nowicki told reporters in Singapore, per the Associated Press. “Is this really the right way to go forward and do we need to do other things? Put other guardrails up? Do we allow it under certain conditions? I don’t know the answer.”
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