2026 Asian Games: Five Women Ready To Break Via In Japan

2026 ASIAN GAMES

• September twentieth – September twenty fifth (pool swimming)
• Tokyo Aquatics Centre
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• Entries

The 2026 Asian Games are practically upon us, with pool swimming motion starting on Sunday, September twentieth.

Among the nations competing on the prestigious multi-sport self-discipline will probably be Japan, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and plenty of others, giving us a deep discipline amongst each the lads’s and ladies’s aquatic occasions.

This 12 months’s competitors is ready to convey the Games again to their conventional four-year cycle after the 2022 version was postponed to 2023 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the 2022 version, the nation of China was the overwhelming crew winner in pool swimming, reaping a outstanding whole of 62 medals, together with 30 golds.

That was practically triple the quantity of {hardware} runner-up Korea captured, with the nation taking dwelling 23 medals, together with 6 golds.

Japan rounded out the highest three performers, snagging 31 medals, however simply 5 golds.

Medal Table on the 2022 Asian Games (Held in 2023)

Because powerhouse nations corresponding to Japan and China maintain an arsenal of formidable swimming weapons, it was tough to slim down a listing of simply 5 key males and 5 key girls to observe over the course of the competitors.

As such, the next girls’s lineup, in no specific order, simply scratches the floor by way of the battles we might even see unfold, with this meet representing an vital milestone alongside the journey to the 2028 Olympic Games.

Five Women to Watch on the 2026 Asian Games

Yu Zidi (CHN)

One of essentially the most thrilling swimmers on the planet proper now’s 13-year-old Yu Zidi, the Chinese prodigy who blew away expectations on the 2025 World Championships.

There in Singapore, simply 12 on the time, she captured a trio of 4th-place finishes, together with within the 200m IM, 400m IM and 200m butterfly.

In addition to her particular person performances, Yu additionally swam the lead-off leg of the Chinese girls’s 4×200 free relay within the prelims, clocking 1:59.28, after which the crew went on to win bronze within the ultimate. That made the Yu the youngest swimmer ever to win a medal on the World Championships, having already turn into the youngest to succeed in a ultimate when she did so initially of the meet within the 200 IM.

At the Chinese National Games in November final 12 months, she ripped a time of two:07.41 within the 200m IM, breaking the Asian and Chinese Record of two:07.57 set by Ye Shiwen on the 2012 Olympic Games en path to profitable the gold medal.

Flash ahead to the China Open in March of this 12 months and Yu garnered a significant confidence increase as she beat multi-Olympic medalist Regan Smith of the U.S. within the 200m butterfly.

The teen is entered within the 200m IM, 400m IM and 200m butterfly occasions individually however can even be a key contributor on her nation’s relays.

Lee Eun-Ji (KOR)

One self-discipline wherein rival Japan is missing on the ladies’s aspect is the backstroke, the place the nation has been void of a world-class dynamo for fairly a while.

Ready to benefit from this hole for her nation of South Korea is 20-year-old Lee Eun-Ji, with the multi-medalist from the 2022 Asian Games entered within the 50m, 100m and 200m to attempt to give her nation a lift in the case of these occasions.

Lee is a five-time medalist from Hangzhou, having earned bronze within the 100m/200m particular person races, along with the blended medley and ladies’s 4x200m free relay. She helped the ladies’s medley seize silver as properly.

After these performances, Lee additional added credentials to her resume within the type of 100m and 200m again bronze medals on the 2025 World University Games.

She at the moment owns the Korean nationwide data in each distances, possessing a lifetime better of 59.56 within the 100m and a couple of:08.29 within the latter, each from final 12 months. Her 200m again outcome would have rendered her the silver medalist in Hangzhou.

Lee’s major competitors this week will come from the Chinese contingent, with Peng Xuwei main the 100m again discipline, whereas Sun Mingxia will probably be among the many 200m again contenders.

Kayla Sanchez (PHI)

25-year-old Kayla Sanchez represents the Philippines however was as soon as an Olympic medalist for the nation of Canada.

She captured two relay medals on the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, amassing silver within the girls’s 4x100m free relay and bronze within the 4x100m medley relay.

Sanchez can also be a three-time gold medalist from the 2021 Short Course World Championships, in addition to a three-time gold medalist on the 2017 World Junior Championships.

Her transfer to start representing the Philippines passed off in 2023 and the next 12 months she raced for the nation on the 2024 Olympic Games, setting a brand new nationwide file within the 100m free.

Last 12 months, she was one of the profitable swimmers on the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand the place she introduced dwelling three golds and 5 silvers.

Here in Tokyo, Sanchez is entered within the 50m again, 100m again, 50m, 100m free and 200m free. In Hangzhou, she positioned sixth within the 50m again, ninth within the 100m again, twelfth within the 50m free and fifth within the 100m free.

She will certainly have her fingers full this week, competing towards the likes of Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong, Wu Qingfeng of China and Rikako Ikee of Japan, amongst a number of different key opponents.

Ichika Kajimoto (JPN)

Japan’s Ichika Kajimoto has been steadily making her presence recognized each in open water and in distance pool swimming occasions over the course of the previous couple of years.

The 22-year-old really broke via by means of her gold medal within the 3k knockout sprints and bronze within the 5k eventually 12 months’s World Championships.

As a follow-up, this 12 months she notched an enormous lifetime better of 8:23.11 within the 800m freestyle whereas competing on the one hundred and first Japan Swim, the competitors which decided Japan’s roster for each Pan Pacs and these Asian Games.

That PB established a brand new Japanese nationwide file within the occasion, overtaking the earlier mark that had stood for practically 22 years. It additionally would have secured the silver medal on the 2022 Asian Games.

More not too long ago on the Pan Pacific Championships, Kajimoto claimed bronze within the 10k and completed as excessive as 4th within the 1500m and fifth within the 800m to place her Asian rivals on discover for this week in Tokyo.

Ching Hwee Gan (SGP)

Former Indiana University swimmer Chng Hwee Gan of Singapore is on the rise among the many distance freestyle Asian rivals able to make her mark amongst her friends this week in Tokyo.

She is coming off of a standout efficiency at this 12 months’s Commonwealth Games the place the 23-year-old positioned fifth within the highly-competitive 400m freestyle, establishing a brand new lifetime greatest and nationwide file of 4:09.34 within the course of.

Prior to that efficiency, she set new nationwide data within the 800m free (8:29.93) and 1500m free (16:01.29) on the 2025 World Championships. The former would have given her the bronze and the latter the silver on the 2022 Asian Games.

More not too long ago, she got here away with a trio of medals on the Southeast Asian Games final December, sweeping the ladies’s 200m, 400m and 800m freestyles.