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Mike Chan

Three years is a long time in sport, and all athletes have to deal with ups and downs, but few have quite experienced the challenge that emerging Chinese swimmer Yu Yiting has had to face: the sudden, if not entirely unexpected, rise of her teenage compatriot Yu Zidi.
But despite facing some serious challenges from the much younger swimmer, Yu Yiting rediscovered her form just before the Asian Games and took her medal tally in Japan to four on Wednesday, storming back from behind at the turn to win the women’s 100m butterfly gold in 56.41 seconds.
Yu Yiting’s time put her just ahead of another compatriot, regional and Asian Games double-record holder Zhang Yufei, who finished 0.03 seconds behind in 56.44 seconds.
The win ensured that Yu will leave Japan with an individual gold medal, a feat she first achieved on her Asian Games debut in 2023.
In those delayed Games, Yu Yiting, who had just turned 18, was one of three women’s swimmers dominating multiple events, and won both the 200m and 400m individual medley (IM) races.

Compatriots Zhang and Li Bingjie were the other two, winning multiple golds in their respective strongholds, butterfly and freestyle.
In Hangzhou, Yu beat the then Asian record holder Ye Shiwen by 2.59 seconds to win the 200 IM but missed out on the 11-year-old Asian record by a mere 0.18 seconds.
Yu made up for that regret almost three years later, at the China National Swimming Championships in June this year, but only after newcomer Yu Zidi had already seized the honour of breaking Ye’s time by 0.14 seconds at the National Games last November.
Still, Yu Yiting did get her Asian record and said after the race: “I finally fulfilled a dream I had three years ago.”
Fast forward to this week, when Yu Yiting and Yu Zidi went head-to-head in the 200m IM twice at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre in less than seven hours – in a heat and in the final.
Entering the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games as the region’s fastest women, the senior Yu won the first battle, but it was the younger Yu who won when it mattered, and in style, chopping 0.72 seconds off Yu Yiting’s three-month-old record to win her second gold on her Games debut in as many events.
Yu Zidi’s time of two minutes and 6.10 seconds was also the second-fastest time in the event’s history, behind only the 2:05.70 world record of Canadian star Summer McIntosh.
After the Hangzhou Games, Yu Yiting witnessed separate improvement in each of her four medley disciplines, but overall progress in the 200m IM never came. There was even a period when she could not crack the 2:08 mark.
“The more I practised, the more anxious I became; the more anxious I became, the more conflicted I felt, eventually turning into a state of ‘competing with myself’,” Yu Yiting recalled. “This event was like a nightmare for me last year; I was even a little afraid to swim in it.”
The load on her shoulders proved so great that she opted for an extended break after the National Games last year.
“That holiday was very important to me: I completely left the pool and didn’t do anything related to swimming; I just wanted to make myself a little more comfortable and relaxed,” she said.
“When I returned to the training group under Michael Bohl, I felt like I was in a completely new state; not the way I had felt for two or three years, but more like I felt when I first joined the national team.”
Yu said Bohl’s training model emphasised “high-intensity, short-distance stimulation, repeated pace control, turning practice and rhythm regulation”.
She added that her training nowadays consists mostly of high-intensity 50-metre sprints and the repeated practice of turns – “completely different” from her previous training.
After some hesitation and then adaptation, the results finally arrived in Hangzhou in June.
Yu Yiting said that whereas she previously could not help but think about results, achievements, records, now she reminds herself to focus only on the process: how to swim every 50 metres, how to handle turns, whether the warm-up is done properly, and whether the pace is accurate.
Yu’s path to enlightenment echoes what Hong Kong star Siobhan Haughey has been through in recent years, as the four-time Asian Games gold medallist explained to the South China Morning Post on Tuesday.
Yu also recalled that after she broke the 200m IM Asian record in June, coach Bohl handed her a note – written at noon before the final – recording the time she should reach for every 50 metres, and those times perfectly matched her splits in the final.
“After this competition, I have a lot of faith in my coach and in myself,” said Yu, for whom initial success and fame had come early.
Zhejiang native Yu Yiting competed at her first Olympics in Tokyo when she was only 15 – the same age Yu Zidi, the teenage prodigy from Hebei, will be at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

With Yu Yiting turning just 21 earlier this month, and Yu Zidi becoming 14 only next month, it is almost certain that the two – who have combined to slice 1.47 seconds off the 200m IM regional record over the past 10 months – will continue to cross paths for years to come.
“My older sister is a formidable opponent; she spurs me on to keep improving and working hard,” said Yu Zidi after she reclaimed the Asian 200 IM record on Monday.
To which Yu Yiting responded: “I think this is a good thing. Only by consistently breaking Asian records can we dare to set our sights on world records and potentially challenge McIntosh or other elite competitors at the 2028 Olympics.”
That challenge is not far-fetched – Yu Yiting, do not forget, did beat world record holder McIntosh at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in August.
The Yu swimmers’ battles with the best in the world have only just begun.


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Yu Yiting overcomes form dip, and the rise of Yu Zidi, to defend her Asian Games title

Yu Yiting (right) after beating Yu Zidi (left) in the 200m individual medley final at the China National Swimming Championships in June. Photo: Handout

Yu Yiting came from behind to win the Asian Games 100m butterfly on Wednesday. Photo: Robert Ng

Yu Zidi (right) won the 200m IM final in Asian-record time on Monday with Yu Yiting second. Photo: Reuters

Asian Games 200m butterfly gold just the start for Chinese swimming sensation Yu Zidi, 13

China’s Yu Zidi one her way to winning the women’s 200m butterfly Asian Games final at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

Yu Zidi (left) celebrates her win with runner-up and compatriot Chang Mohan. Photo: Reuters

China’s Li Bingjie, who defended her 1,500m freestyle title on Sunday, is a “sister” to Yu Zidi. Photo: AFP

China’s Liu Zige, who won the 200m butterfly at the 2008 Olympics, still holds the Asian record. Photo: AFP

Siobhan Haughey stakes claim as Hong Kong’s greatest athlete after fourth Asian Games title

Siobhan Haughey, who won the Asian Games 100m freestyle on Tuesday, has won medals across every major event for 13 years and counting. Photo: Robert Ng

Siobhan Haughey beat a much younger field to defend her Asian Games 100m freestyle title. Photo: Robert Ng

Siobhan Haughey says she is now “motivated by the process, not the result”. Photo: Robert Ng

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Chinese swimmer wins 100m butterfly after losing 200m IM final to younger rival, with whom she hopes to take on all comers at next Olympics


Chinese swimmer wins 100m butterfly after losing 200m IM final to younger rival, with whom she hopes to take on all comers at next Olympics.


Swimming

Yu Zidi

Summer McIntosh

Zhang Yufei

Yu Yiting overcomes form dip, and the rise of Yu Zidi, to defend her Asian Games title

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Chinese swimmer wins 100m butterfly after losing 200m IM final to younger rival, with whom she hopes to take on all comers at next Olympics

Chinese swimmer wins 100m butterfly after losing 200m IM final to younger rival, with whom she hopes to take on all comers at next Olympics