Team China looks to make waves in Japan

So young, yet so competitive, China's swimming prodigy Yu Zidi looks to bolster her LA28 Olympic prospects with a strong Asian Games debut, leading a Chinese squad determined to continue its dominance in the pool at the continental meet.

Having already impressed at the elite level last year with a breakout world championships, the 13-year-old Yu is heading to the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games as arguably the brightest star to watch at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, with the whole world wondering how much further the teen phenom can push herself in the buildup to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

The individual medley specialist will kick off her campaign with a test run in the women's 200m butterfly heats on Sunday at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics competition venue, before going all out to prove her LA28 medal credentials in her strength 200m and 400m IM events on Monday and Wednesday, respectively.

Should Yu bring out her best in Tokyo, she will hardly meet any threat racing to gold in the 400 IM as this season's fastest Asian swimmer in the discipline, posting a time of 4 min 30.79 sec at the national championships in June — a time which would have won her silver medals at both the 2025 worlds in Singapore and 2024 Paris Olympics.

The 200 IM is expected to be an intriguing civil war between the young prospect and her senior teammate Yu Yiting, who turned heads at last month's Pan Pacific Championships in California by beating a strong field that included Canada's world record holder Summer McIntosh and three-time world champion Alex Walsh of the United States to seal perhaps the most convincing victory of her career.

And that didn't come out of nowhere.

Yu Yiting had already thrown down the gauntlet to the rest of the continent by touching first in a season-best effort of 2:06.82 to win the 200 IM at June's nationals while breaking Yu Zidi's former Asian record.

The young talent is poised to face the challenge head-on.

"I feel more excited (than pressured)," Yu Zidi said of her anticipation for the upcoming Asiad during a recent open training session in Beijing.

"In the final tune-up, I will have to train well and not slack off. I will try to demonstrate the level of my training and work hard to be better than ever," she said.

At the 2025 worlds in Singapore, the schoolgirl with a tomboyish haircut stunned the sport's global community by helping Team China to a third-place finish in the women's 4x200 freestyle relay to become the youngest-ever medalist in the championships' history at just 12 years old.

Also helping lead China's youthful charge is teenage freestyler Zhang Zhanshuo, who has signed up to a hectic schedule of five individual events from the 100 to 1,500, plus two relays, to go for what would be a massive, and probably physically impossible, medal haul during a tight six-day window.

The 19-year-old rising star has proved his stamina and versatility by collecting five gold medals from four individual events and one relay at last year's National Games, but he will need to step up an extra gear if he is to pull off an incredible feat at the Asiad, and in the face of much tougher competition, too.

The Chinese teen sensation is staying humble ahead of his Asiad debut, though.

"The standard of men's freestyle across Asia is incredibly high. I won't put too much pressure on myself," said Zhang, who, at 16, became China's youngest men's world champion as a member of the country's 4x100 free relay gold-winning team at the 2024 worlds in Qatar.

"I will approach the competition at my first Asian Games as a challenger, fighting fiercely in every race I enter."

Reigning Olympic champion and 100 free world record holder Pan Zhanle is expected to make a statement comeback at his second Asian Games, after experiencing a career-low dip in form since his Paris 2024 heroics, while South Korea's 2024 world champion Hwang Sun-woo will be raring to cement his status as the continental leader in 200 free after setting a new Asian record of 1:43.92 in October last year.

The 22-year-old Pan, who became the all-time fastest 100m sprint swimmer by clocking an otherworldly mark of 46.40 at Paris 2024 to win a historic gold for China, said he's recharged and targeting a sub-47 benchmark in Japan after spending the past summer training alongside his Romanian archrival David Popovici at a high-performance camp in Bucharest.

Hwang, who collected six medals at the last Games in Hangzhou in 2023, including the 200 gold, said he's also ready to stake his claim in Tokyo.

"If I can break the 1:43 barrier in the 200 freestyle, I believe I can win another gold," Hwang, 23, said during a media event in Seoul last month.

Standing behind China's young debutants, and bolstering the nation's 44-strong swimming contingent, are the country's seasoned Olympic veterans Zhang Yufei, Wang Shun and Qin Haiyang, who have shown rekindled form recently, boosting medal hopes and aiming to keep up the Chinese program's dominance in Japan.

Set to compete at his fifth Asiad, men's IM contender Wang, who at 32 is the oldest swimmer on China's roster, will be looking to extend his winning streak in the 200 IM with a three-peat at the arena where he won his only Olympic gold medal at Tokyo 2020.

"Back in 2023, I thought that might be my last Asian Games as an athlete," said Wang, who set the 200 IM Asian record of 01:54.62 three years ago in Hangzhou, capital of his home province Zhejiang.

"I never imagined I would get another chance to compete here, so I'm swimming with a free mind and will try to deliver an opportunity to hear the national anthem play as our flag is raised again."

Dubbed China's "butterfly queen", Zhang Yufei will focus on regaining her edge in the sprint combo of 50 and 100 fly, with her sights set on LA28, while six-time men's world champion breaststroke star Qin is determined to repeat his clean sweep of three individual golds in Hangzhou at his second Asiad in Japan.