Yu Zidi, 12, a participation in the World Swimming Championships and waves of questions

At the Singapore World Swimming Championships, there is currently only one superstar: Summer McIntosh and her two world titles in the 400m freestyle and 200m individual medley. The 18-year-old Canadian could quickly be overtaken by France's Léon Marchand, who made his debut at the city-state's aquatics center on Wednesday, July 30, in the 200m individual medley. However, the swimmer who has caused the biggest stir since her debut at the World Championships is a curiosity by the name of Yu Zidi.

The swimmer from the Chinese province of Hebei, south of Beijing, is talented and certainly deserves her place in international competition, but she is only 12 years old. The youngest participant in these World Championships, both men and women, narrowly missed out – by three hundredths of a second – on the podium in the 200m individual medley. On Wednesday, she qualified for the semifinals of the 200m butterfly and will compete in the 400m individual medley at the end of the week.

Since this first performance, far from having gone unnoticed, her case has aroused fascination among swimming professionals and sometimes indignation among followers of the competition. "It will be interesting to see how she will use this competition to translate it into her future swimming, because she has a really bright future," assured the American Alex Walsh, second in the 200m medley and just ahead of the young Chinese.

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