Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has company: Meet 13-year-old, who is rewriting Asian Games history

China's 13-year-old Yu Zidi has turned heads at the 2026 Asian Games in Hangzhou. Yu completed a hat-trick of gold medals (swimming) in Tokyo on Wednesday (September 23), winning the 400m individual medley in an Asian Games record time of 4 minutes 28.56 seconds. She had earlier won the 200m butterfly and 200m individual medley, with both victories also helping her create new Games record.

At just 13, Yu is already one of the prominent names in international swimming. She has caught the attention of sports fans around the world, much like India's teenage cricket sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.

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Yu’s rise has been remarkably quick. She began swimming at the age of six after being spotted by a local coach. At the 2025 World Championships in Singapore, she finished fourth in all three of her individual events at just 12 years old, while winning a bronze medal in the relay.

Much like Sooryavanshi in cricket, Yu is achieving remarkable feats at an age when few expect them to compete at such a high level. Sooryavanshi made headlines with his performances in the IPL, and soon after he became the youngest to earn an India cap in men's cricket, overtaking legendary Sachin Tendulkar in the process. Sooryavanshi was 15 years and 99 days old when he represented the Men in Blue for the first time.

Switching focus to Yu, she was born in Baoding in China’s Hebei province. Despite the growing hype, she has remained modest about her success, saying, “I'm not a genius, I'm just a hard-working person.”

With three Asian Games gold medals and three Games records already to her name, Yu’s rise is one of the most intriguing stories in world swimming.

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