2025 CHINESE NATIONAL SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- May 17-24, 2025
- Shenzhen, China
- LCM (50 meters)
- Day 1 Recap
- Results
The 2025 Chinese National Swimming Championships kicked off today from Shenzhen with swimmers vying for the chance to represent the nation at this summer’s World Championships.
With big guns such as Zhang Yufei, Sun Yang, Qin Haiyang, Yu Yiting and Pan Zhanle in the water, you might have missed a monstrous swim which took place at the hands of 12-year-old Yu Zidi.
Racing in tonight’s semi-finals of the women’s 200m IM, Yu fired off a huge personal best of 2:12.52 to put her name into the fold for possible Singapore qualification.
She secured the 3rd seed behind Yu Yiting who registered 2:10.56 followed by Ye Shiwen who notched 2:11.92.
As for Yu Zidi, the 12-year-old’s time destroyed her previous personal best of 2:14.04 registered at last year’s edition of this meet.
Yu split 27.80/34.11/39.43/31.18 to nab the 3rd seed and establish herself as the fastest 12-year-old female (or male, for that matter) in history.
For perspective, Yu’s swim obliterated the current U.S. National Age Group Records for girls and boys.
Teagan O’Dell owns the girls’ NAG at 2:18.69 while Richard Poplawski owns the boys in 2:13.59.
This caliber of performance is par for the course for Yu, building on her breakout times established at the 2024 Chinese Nationals.
You can review Yu’s head-turning performances from last year here, as we keep an eye on what this emerging talent accomplishes this time around, including in tomorrow night’s 200m IM final.
Had to read that twice… whoa
Her previous PB was actually 2:12.57 so this was only a 0.05 second drop (obviously still very impressive and there’s still finals). But honestly thought her 54.78 4×100 free relay leadoff was the more impressive swim.
https://swimswam.com/11-yr-old-yu-zidi-crushes-20986200fly-21257-200im-at-chinese-summer-championships/
have we EVER seen someone this talented at such a young age?
I fear Im suffering from recency bias, someone please remind me :>
IDK man this is kind of crazy. 7 seconds ahead of the US NAG Record is absolutely insane.
🤯 Crazy fast.
Dear China swimming, please keep this girl happy and healthy so we all get to see the best she can become, best of luck to her.
Yu Zidi’s previous PB in the 200 IM was 2.12.57 from Summer Champs (late August 2024) 11-Yr-Old Yu Zidi Crushes 2:09.86 200 Fly, 2:12.57 200 IM At Chinese Summer Championships
The USA rules require a swimmer to be 14 by the end of 2025. So each Federation
may decide what age a swimmer must be? What age do most Federations require?
Are we sure she’s 12?
In the sense of like were we there at the birth?