12-Year-Old Yu Zidi Becomes Youngest Medallist at World Aquatics Championships

Yu Zidi, a 12-year-old Chinese swimmer, made history at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships by becoming the youngest medalist ever, earning a bronze medal as part of China's women's 4x200m freestyle relay team after swimming in the preliminary heats. Despite narrowly missing individual medals with two fourth-place finishes in the 200m butterfly and 200m individual medley, Yu's exceptional performances led World Aquatics to waive the minimum age requirement of 14 due to her world-class times, sparking a broader debate on whether children so young should compete at elite levels. Her achievements have been compared to Denmark's Inge Sorensen, who won an Olympic bronze at age 12 in 1936, highlighting how rare Yu's feat is in modern swimming. While celebrated as a prodigy and labeled a "sensation" by World Aquatics, concerns have been raised about the physical and mental impacts of intense training on young athletes, with experts questioning the appropriateness of current age regulations. World Aquatics' executive director Brent Nowicki indicated the organization is reconsidering its age policies to ensure adequate protections for young swimmers. Yu's success underscores both the promise of early talent development in Chinese sports culture and the ethical challenges of youth participation in high-level competition.