Yu Zidi, 13, Wins Third Asian Games Gold in 4:28.56 400 IM

China's Yu Zidi won her third individual gold medal of the 2026 Asian Games on September 23, touching the wall in the women's 400m individual medley in 4:28.56. She is 13 years old. The time took down the Asian Games record of 4:32.97 that Olympic champion Ye Shiwen set at Incheon in 2014, by 4.41 seconds, and moved Yu to fifth on SwimSwam's all-time list of performers in the event.

The gold completed a sweep of the three individual finals she entered in four days of racing at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, where the swimming programme is being held even though the Games are hosted by Aichi and Nagoya. She opened on September 20 with the 200m butterfly in 2:05.08, an Asian Games record that removed Zhang Yufei's 2:05.57 from 2023; SwimSwam placed her 14th on the all-time list in that event. On September 21 she won the 200m individual medley in 2:06.10, a Chinese, Asian, world junior and Asian Games record in a single swim.

The 200 IM is where the numbers become hardest to place. Only Summer McIntosh of Canada has ever gone faster, with the world record of 2:05.70 she set at the 2025 Canadian Trials, and Yu's swim pushed Katinka Hosszu's 2:06.12 from the 2015 World Championships down to third on the all-time list, Swimming World reported. The same race erased McIntosh's world junior record of 2:06.56 from the 2024 Olympic Games.

Yu is also still improving fast. Her lifetime best in the 400 IM was 4:30.79, swum in June 2026; in the 200 IM it stood at 2:07.41 and in the 200 butterfly at 2:05.71. Across four days in Tokyo she lowered all three, by 2.23, 1.31 and 0.63 seconds — 4.17 seconds in total.

That is what makes the week read as more than a medal haul. Her 400 IM is 0.13 outside Ye Shiwen's Asian record of 4:28.43 from the London 2012 Olympics, leaving McIntosh's world record of 4:23.65, set in 2025, as the only mark still clearly ahead of her. SwimSwam noted that Yu will be 15 at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, and Swimming World expects a duel with McIntosh at next year's World Championships in Budapest.

Several things remain open. No race schedule for Yu beyond these Games appears in the meet coverage, and the pool programme in Tokyo runs through September 25. China also took silver in the 400m final through 15-year-old Ke Wenxi in 4:32.51, a time that was itself inside Ye's old Games record, with Japan's Mio Narita third in 4:33.45.