Chinese schoolgirl Yu Zidi has been hailed a “sensation” after setting the fastest time ever for a 12-year-old in the 200m individual medley at China’s national championships.
Yu finished second in the event with a time of two minutes and 10.63 seconds, behind 2024 Olympic finalist Yu Yuting.
The time, if achieved in the heats at last year’s Paris Olympics, would have resulted in the youngster reaching the semi-finals.
Global governing body World Aquatics posted “12-year-old sensation alert” on its official X account.
Yu, who turns 13 in October, could earn a place in China’s national squad for the World Championships in Singapore in July.
The performance of elite Chinese swimmers has been in the spotlight since before the Paris Olympics.
China selected 11 athletes for the Games in France from a group of 23 that had returned positive doping tests.
As a result of the positives, the International Testing Agency (ITA) committed to testing Chinese athletes eight times – twice as often as standard – between the start of 2024 and the Games in Paris.
After finishing fourth in the 4x100m relay with Great Britain, Adam Peaty questioned China’s victory, saying: “There’s no point winning if you’re not winning fair.”
Two of the four gold medallists, Qin Haiyang and Sun Jiajun, were among the 23 Chinese swimmers who returned positive doping tests prior to the Tokyo Olympics.
The China Anti-Doping Agency said the swimmers who failed tests before Paris 2024 had unintentionally ingested heart medication trimetazidine, and foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said the country “consistently adhered to the firm stance of zero tolerance for doping”.
