2024 CHINESE NATIONAL SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Friday, April 19th – Sunday, April 27th
- Shenzhen, China
- LCM (50m)
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap/Day 4 Recap/Day 5 Recap/Day 6 Recap
- Results
- Livestream
While all eyes are on the likes of Olympic champions Wang Shun and Zhang Yufei at these 10-day Chinese National Swimming Championships, two eye-popping performances were brought about by an 11-year-old female named Yu Zidi.
Yu made waves in both the women’s 400m IM and 400m freestyle events early on in this competition, registering times that would rank as the fastest 11-12 American in history.
In the 400m free, Yu produced a time of 4:10.73 in the heats followed by a final mark of 4:12.10 to place 7th in the final. Her morning outing is nearly 7 seconds faster than the U.S. National Age Group Record holder Kayla Han (4;17.65) put on the books in 2021.
Then in the 400m IM, Yu fired off a mark of 4:40.97 to snag the silver. Only Yu Yiting was faster in the final, hitting 4:39.60 for the top prize.
Yu Zidi‘s time fell just shy of the World Aquatics Olympic Qualifying Time of 4:38.53.
Splits for Yu’s performance included the following:
- 28.40/34.02 (1:02.42)
- 37.04/35.09 (2:14.55)
- 42.23/41.52 (3:38.30)
- 32.11/30.56 (4:40.97)
American Han also owns the 11-12 age group record in the 400m IM at 4:50.70 so Yu was over 10 seconds faster with her result at this competition.
These impressive performances are coming against the backdrop of the current positive doping situation involving China.
23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ) at the start of the calendar year in 2021. The Chinese Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) did not sanction the athletes and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) did not dispute the findings that the swimmers were inadvertently contaminated.
Additional Information:
These “very” eyebrow raising set of performances occurs at the exactly worst time for the Chinese federation.
chat is this the most insane swim in history?
China for years have produced very young girls who swam really fast but only a few managed to transition well into senior rank, among whom are Ye Shiwen, Li Bingjie, etc.
Yes, if she is truly 11, these are the craziest age group times of all-time.
It’s really not that unusual to see extremely young Chinese swimmers pop out every now and then but they often would just kinda sizzle and fizzle very quickly. Wait until the Chinese National Games come around…that’s when we will see tons of young swimmers swim some phenomenal times all over place.
I may have looked at this all too fast, but that would’ve finaled in this last WC meet, and been 9th in 2022 and 2023 out of heats.
The actual fuh??
sadly its 2024 and swimmer not as good rip! would have been funny to watch 11 year old win stuf
I would like to see her technique on video, it must be phenomenal…
This is one of the things I cant bring myself to believe unless I see it
there’s a video of the 400 im
Based on intl age records, it seems she is the fastest 11yo of any sex by 12 seconds in the 400fr and 18 seconds in the 800fr globally – that is all time. 18 seconds faster than any British 11yo boy in the 400im, and 29s faster than any 11yo British girl. Unfathomable numbers!
Is there a database of the international records (or more, all time top “x”) for each age?
It does beat both boys NAGs as well. And let’s be honest, the 12 year old boys setting those records have a mustache thicker than Mark Spitz.
What age group record would 4:40 400im beat ?
And also what’s the boy’s record for that 11-12 age group?
Boys 11-12 is 4:42.54, so 2 seconds faster than that. It’s very close to the girls 13-14 NAG, which is a 4:39.76 by Becca Mann, and would rank 3rd in that age group, between Katie Hoff and Kayla Han. For comparison’s sake, Canada’s 12 and under record is 4:50.21 by Summer McIntosh, about half a second faster than the American 11-12 record