Teen titans Yu Zidi, Zhang Zhanshuo and Shin Ohashi set to make a splash at Asian Games

SINGAPORE – While some view the medley as the most gruelling race in the pool, 13-year-old Chinese wonderkid Yu Zidi likened swimming the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle to a buffet spread.

She said: “The medley requires us to master different strokes and techniques. I see it as sampling various delicacies and I find it interesting to visualise them as good food when I’m training.”

While she retains child-like innocence in her comments and cartoon-dog swim cap, Zidi has been clocking times beyond her age since she attempted to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics at age 11 and missed the women’s 400m individual medley A cut by just two seconds.

At 12, her medley times were more than 10 seconds faster than what Canada’s current world record holder Summer McIntosh clocked at the same age.

She then created history by becoming the youngest medallist at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore as part of China’s women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team who won a bronze.

She also agonisingly missed out on individual medals when she placed fourth in the women’s 200m butterfly and the 200m and 400m individual medley finals.

Still only 13, Zidi enters the Sept 19-Oct 4 Asian Games in Japan as a real threat after setting an Asian record in the women’s 200m medley with a blistering 2min 7.41sec at China’s National Games last November before it was broken by teammate Yu Yiting in June.

It has been a meteoric rise for the teenager from Hebei who started swimming at age six to beat the heat, but the pressure and scrutiny – debate was rife over whether it is appropriate for a swimmer as young and precocious as her to be competing at an elite level – was suffocating at times.

In 2024, she nearly gave up swimming as she was exhausted juggling training and studies, but decided to soldier on with support from her coaches, teammates and parents.

While established names such as butterfly specialist Zhang Yufei, 28, breaststroke king Qin Haiyang, 27, distance queen Li Bingjie, 24, and men’s 100m freestyle world record holder Pan Zhanle, 22, are in the 40-swimmer squad who are aiming to improve on China’s impressive 28-gold showing in 2023, their youngsters are also set to make a big splash at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

In a show of their strength in depth, Zidi is not the only teenage terror who will be unleashed at the Asian Games for the first time, with 19-year-old Zhang Zhanshuo looking to make his mark in the men’s 200m, 400m, 800m and 1,500m freestyle and snatch gold from South Korea in the first three events.

Similarly, the teen from Shandong, who started swimming at age five because his family lived by the sea, had to persevere through tough times, such as when he did not make a single final at the 2021 China National Games and his best finish in an individual event was 12th.

He said: “There is no smile on the face of someone who wants to win. There is one advantage to being in the pool, because others can see your tears. There have been many such moments when training gets very tiring or when I can’t get the results I expected, but I’m not too keen to show such negativity to others.

“The two things that motivate me, when I think I can’t go on any more, are my desire to become a champion and my resentment to past failures.”

As his fitness, explosiveness and technical maturity improved, he was rewarded with a surprise spot in China’s 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relay teams that won gold at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships.

Though he failed to win a medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, he bounced back to sweep five freestyle titles in the men’s 200m, 400m, 800m, 1,500m and 4x200m relay at the 2025 China National Games.

With his eyes firmly on Olympic redemption, Zhang said: “Even if there are breaks between now and Los Angeles 2028, I will not allow myself to slacken. To have breakthrough success, there must be sacrifices. When I’m standing on the highest step of the podium, I’ll feel that it’s all worth it.”

While China are expected to dominate the pool again, Japan will want to narrow the gap after a transition period when they claimed just five golds in 2023 to fall out of the top two for the first time since they first took part in Asiad swimming competitions in 1954. At Paris 2024, they also picked up just one silver.

Besides breaststroke veteran Satomi Suzuki, a 35-year-old looking to win medals at a fifth Asiad, butterfly specialist Tomoru Honda, 24, and medley prince Tomoyuki Matsushita, 21, the hosts also welcome new young talents.

One to look out for in particular is 17-year-old Shin Ohashi, who is the youngest breaststroke triple crown champion at the Japan Swim when he completed his hat-trick in March, setting world junior records over 100m and 200m.

If he manages to impress in home waters again, he will be one of the most unlikely champions standing at just 1.69m and being a junk food junkie.

Rather comically, he said: “I sometimes eat too much of that stuff before lunch and end up not properly eating lunch. I know I shouldn’t but I can’t stop. I know it’s not good for you but hey, once it’s in your stomach it’s all the same.”

But put the high school senior in the pool and one can see how he adapts the upper-body work of Adam Ramsay-Peaty, the kicking of Leon Marchand and the fluidity of Ippei Watanabe in what he calls hybrid swimming.

Despite his tender age, he is not shy to claim he is eyeing Qin’s men’s 200m breaststroke world record (2:05.48). Ohashi, who is aiming to hit 2:03 and gun for Olympic gold, said: “I’ll aim for a faster time at the Asian Games... I just want to gain that experience I need for LA.”

Although Japan will enjoy home-ground advantage, the South Korean swimmers are in no rush to relinquish second place after recording their best Asiad finish with six golds in 2023.

These include Hwang Sun-woo, who has beefed up for the meet, gaining 10kg as the 23-year-old aims to break his men’s 200m freestyle Games record of 1:44.40.

Kim Woo-min, 25, is also defiant in the face of stiff competition. The defending men’s 400m and 800m freestyle champion added: “Asian swimmers have been improving but I am confident our swimmers are great under pressure.”

In 2023, 37 nations and territories participated in the Asiad swimming competition, with only eight finishing in the medals and just four striking gold. This included Hong Kong who clinched historic triumphs in the women’s 100m and 200m freestyle through Siobhan Haughey.

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