2025 CHINESE NATIONAL SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- May 17-24, 2025
- Shenzhen, China
- LCM (50 meters)
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap/Day 4 Recap/Day 5 Recap/Day 6 Recap/Day 7 Recap
- Results
The final day of the 2025 Chinese National Swimming Championships brought another monster swim at the hands of 12-year-old Yu Zidi, once again blowing our minds with what we thought was possible.
Racing in the final of the women’s 400m IM this evening, Yu crushed a lifetime best of 4:35.53 to take the gold. Not a typo – 4:35.53 from the 12-year-old.
Runner-up status went to Chang Mohan who touched in 4:37.33 followed by Li Bingjie who earned bronze in 4:38.66.
Just like that, Yu becomes China’s 8th-swiftest performer in history with tonight’s head-turning performance.
Splits for Yu’s incredible achievement are below
Entering this competition, Yu’s lifetime best rested at the 4:40.97 established last year…..as an 11-year-old. That means tonight’s outing marks her first-ever foray under the 4:40 barrier and she did so by hacking over 5 seconds off of that previous best-ever swim.
She now ranks 5th in the world on the season and easily cleared the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard of 4:43.06 needed for Singapore.
2024-2025 LCM Women 400 IM
McIntosh
WR 4:23.65
| 2 | Emma WEYANT | USA | 4:33.95 | 05/02 |
| 3 | Ellen Walshe | IRL | 4:35.32 | 05/02 |
| 4 | Mio NARITA | JPN | 4:35.39 | 03/23 |
| 5 | Yu Zidi | CHN | 4:35.53 | 05/24 |
For perspective as to how otherworldly Yu’s 4:35.53 is, the U.S. National Age Group Record for 11-12-year-old girls sits at the 4:50.70 Kayla Han established in 2021. The 11-12-year-old boys’ national benchmark rests at the 4:42.54 Richard Poplawski put on the books in 2019.
Yu’s performance crushes both of those standards as well as exceeds the 13-14-year-old girls’ U.S. NAG of 4:39.76 Becca Mann put up in 2012.
Summer McIntosh of Canada, the reigning Olympic champion and world record holder in the women’s 400m IM, holds the Canadian national age record at 4:50.21 for the 11-12-year-old age group, a time from 2019. That’s now game-changing Yu’s swim is, that she beats the phenom McIntosh’s best mark at that age by about 15 seconds.
Furthermore, Yu’s time tonight would have made her the 6th-place finisher at the 2023 World Championships and the top podium finisher at the lesser-attended 2024 World Championships in Doha.
Remarkably, Yu’s 4:35.53 would have placed her 4th in last year’s Olympic Games final, just over half a second outside of the bronze medal.
The youngster has already qualified for this summer’s World Championships in the women’s 200m IM and 200m fly, posting nearly-beyond-comprehension marks of 2:10.63 and 2:06.83, respectively.
Seems legit
It will be interesting to see where she will be in 3-4 years from now
Applause to Li Bingjie who earned PB in multiple events, 4:38.66 400IM would have been 4th in Doha.
“in doha” is cherry-picking
in doha isn’t impressive
Since we’re all comparing her to Summer I was wondering in which of the “McIntosh events” she’s more likely to medal in Singapore. I’d go with 400 IM, since that race has been pretty open in the latest years for girls not named Summer.
while in the 200IM she souldn’t even be the best chinese swimmer, and even if McIntosh decides to skip it, would be hard for this girl to beat Alex Walsh, Yu Yiting and Abbie Wood
This is amazing, congratulations to her 👏👏👏.
with katie grimes being washed i think if she drops even a second at world she gets bronze bcs its only weyent and mcintosh faster then her
Really difficult for a child to do well in their first rodeo at an international meet. It’s likely we get some insane times at their national games in November but I doubt she’ll put down PBs at Worlds.
in her video she did say she is preparing her best for worlds even though what she put up here is already really good
Is washed really the correct description? She just won bronze and isn’t even 20 yet.
Yu’s PB
100 Free 54.78
200 Free 1.58.03
400 Free 4.10.73（2024.04）
800 Free 8.45.47 （2024.04）
1500 Free 16.46.40（2024.04）
100 Back 1.02.88
100 Breast 1.12.98
100 Fly 1.01.62（2024.08）
200 Fly 2.06.83
200 IM 2.10.63
400 IM 4.35.53
Even without considering her age,she is already a top-level athlete in multiple events.
So incredibly absurd for a 12 year old omg 😭
She was 1:00.70 first 100 of the 2 fly and 1:01.29 to open up her 400 IM. Pretty sure those can officially be used to set 100 records so using them for her PB also feels right, even if they are slower than what her PB likely works be if she swam the 100 now.
Also it’s nuts to open a 400 IM faster than your previous 100 fly PB less than a year later and not die even for an age grouper. Insane when you consider the previous fly PB is only about a second outside US Olympic trials qualifying level.
Just another thing that caught my eye in an already insane list of achievements.
At USA club parent meeting…
Coach: “blah, blah, blah…long term athlete development planning…”
Parent thinking: “this coach doesn’t know what they’re doing”