Chinese swimmer Yu Zidi, 12, turns into youngest World Aquatics Championships medalist

Yu Zidi, a 12-year-old Chinese athlete, has develop into the youngest swimmer in historical past to win a medal on the World Aquatics Championships.

China gained bronze within the 4x200m freestyle relay on the Championships in Singapore, and whereas Yu didn’t swim in Thursday’s last, she certified for a medal after swimming a leg within the heats earlier within the day.

She swam the primary leg in a time of 1:59.28 as China certified third quickest for the ultimate. Australia went on to take gold, whereas the United States gained silver.

Yu, who doesn’t flip 13 till October, narrowly missed out on a person medal on Monday after ending fourth within the ladies’s 200m medley last, 0.06 seconds off Canada’s Mary-Sophie Harvey within the bronze medal posititon.

She was fourth once more within the ladies’s 200m butterfly last on Thursday, 0.31 seconds behind Australia’s Elizabeth Dekkers in third.

“It feels quite emotional, it’s a nice feeling,” Yu stated following the medal ceremony.

World Aquatics has a minimal age requirement of 14 to compete on the World Championships, however Yu was permitted to take part as a result of her instances met the competitors’s “A” requirements.

In May, Yu posted the quickest time achieved by a 12-year-old, male or feminine, within the 200m particular person medley with a time of two:10.63.

Brent Nowicki, the manager director of World Aquatics, admitted the governing physique would want to have conversations about its age-limit guidelines.

“I didn’t think I’d have this conversation, but now I think we have to go back and say is this appropriate?” he stated, as reported by 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.”

Harvey, who beat Yu to bronze on Monday, was filled with reward for Yu earlier within the week. “She might have more pressure by the end of the meet because she’s been swimming really well so far,” Harvey advised reporters.

“I used to be a junior and I used to think that it’s just gaining experience for the future, and I think going into LA we’re probably going to see her a lot more.”

(Photo: Sarah Stier/Getty Images)