"I hope that I can grow up to be like Li Bingjie's sister (become) a world and Olympic champion, and experience what it feels like, although it is very tiring, as long as I can swim, I will definitely work hard and win glory for the country." This is an essay written by Yu Zidi, who idolizes Olympic champion Li Bingjie. At the recent National Swimming Championships, Yu Zidi and Li Bingjie competed on the same field, and once overwhelmed Li Bingjie in the preliminaries. Eleven-year-old Yu Zidi shone at the National Swimming Championships, competing in 10 individual events and setting new personal highs in nine of them. Yu Zidi, whose body is not yet fully open, has amazing potential and has a good chance of becoming a world champion in the future.
Born on October 16, 2012, Yu Zidi is only 11 years old now, but she has already won the second place in the women's 400m mixed swimming at the National Swimming Championships, only losing to Yu Yiting.
Yu Zidi will start participating in national competitions in 2023, but there is a big gap compared with adult athletes. A year later, she ushered in a metamorphosis, and she signed up for 10 individual events at the National Swimming Championships - women's 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle, 800m freestyle, 1500m freestyle, 100m breaststroke, 100m backstroke, 200m butterfly, 400m individual medley.
In addition, Yu Zidi also participated in the relay event competition and was a super model worker at the National Swimming Championships. Yu Zidi achieved good results in the women's 400m freestyle, swimming a time of 4:10.73 in the preliminaries to rank third, beating the national team stars Li Bingjie and Liu Yaxin. Of course, Li Bingjie and Liu Yaxin did not exert their strength in the preliminaries.
In the final, Li Bingjie won the championship in 4:04.03, Liu Yaxin won the second place in 4:04.88, and Yu Zidi won the seventh place. In the subsequent women's 400m medley competition, Yu Zidi ranked second in the preliminaries and finals, of which she swam 4:40.97 in the final, setting a personal best.
Yu Zidi set a new personal high in 9 individual events at the National Swimming Championships, and only the 100-meter backstroke did not make a breakthrough. Yu Zidi is good at freestyle and medley from the current point of view. This is a rare swimming talent, and it will depend on which direction she ends up developing. Yu Zidi seems to be more adept at the longer middle distance. And she won the runner-up in the women's 400-meter medley, reminiscent of Ye Shiwen, who won the women's 400-meter medley championship at the London Olympics in 2012, when Xiao Ye was only 16 years old.
Yu Zidi is expected to rise to the top in the next Olympic cycle, attacking the world champion and the Olympic champion. Chinese swimming has entered an era of talent blowout. After the female athlete Zhang Yufei, Tang Qianting appeared, and now Yu Zidi is gradually growing.