Zibei Yan is a breaststroke specialist from China. He made his Olympic debut in 2016 aged 2o and won his first World Championship medal a year later.
2016 Olympic Games
In his Olympic debut Yan finished 27th in the 100 meter breaststroke in 1:00.88.
2017 World Championships
Yan won a bronze medal as a member of China’s 400 meter mixed medley relay. Yan swam the breaststroke leg in 58.98 to help china touch third in 3:41.25 to tie with Canada, just 0.04 behind Australia who took silver. Earlier in the week Yan was in the 100 meter breaststroke where he finished 7th in the final in 59.42. In the 50 meter breaststroke Yan finished 15th in the semifinal in 27.33.
2018 Asian Games
Yan had his best international meet to date in Jakarta, scoring double silver in the 50 (27.25) and 100 (59.31) breaststroke. He actually broke the games record in the heats of the 50 (27.06) and while he didn’t end up winning the event, he still holds the record as Yasuhiro Koseki went 27.07 in the finals to win. Yan performed even better on the relays, splitting 58.45 on the mixed 4×100 medley and 58.86 on the 4×100 medley relays to help China to gold in both.
2019 World Championships
Yan started his world champs off strong, taking a bronze medal as well as the Asian record in the 100 breast, touching the wall at 58.63 in the final. In the semi final of the 50 breast, Yan broke another Asian record, stopping the clock at 26.86, slightly faster than his record-setting prelim swim of 26.93.
2023 World Aquatics Championships (Fukuoka, Japan)
Yan took 2nd fiddle to Qin Haiyang as China’s breaststroker but still came away from the meet solidly. In the 100 breast, Yan ended up 6th in 59.23 after posting a 59.02 in semis for 4th. Yan also swam on two morning relays before being replaced by Qin in the finals: the mixed and men’s 400 medley relays. On the mixed relay, he was a solid 59.00 split. In the finals, China reaped gold. On the men’s medley, he was nearly as good with a 59.04 split. China took silver in the final.
2022(3) Asian Games (Hangzhou, China)
Yan put up a very solid 59.09 100 breast for silver, over a second back of Countryman Qin Haiyang. Yan also filled in for Qin on the prelims squad of both the mixed and men’s 400 medley relays. Both finals squads won gold. In the mixed relay, Yan clocked a 59.62 breast split while in the men’s relay, he clocked a 1:00.12 split.
