Swimming to look at age rules after 12-year-old makes waves

Swimming’s governing body said Wednesday it will “have a look” at its entry rules after Yu Zidi’s participation at the world championships at the age of 12.

The Chinese schoolgirl came within 0.06sec of winning a medal on Monday in Singapore and could yet reach the podium, with two of her more favoured events to come.

American silver medallist Alex Walsh said Yu was “phenomenally talented at such a young age”.

But there have also been questions raised about the impact on Yu mentally and physically of high-level training and competing.

Under World Aquatics rules, the minimum age is 14 but younger swimmers can compete if — like Yu — they meet certain qualifying standards.

Brent Nowicki, its executive director, admitted they had been surprised that someone as young as Yu had been fast enough to make the world championships.

“Our ‘A’ standards are so thin, they’re so tight that I don’t think I actually, in my mind, thought that it was a potential that a 12-year-old earned such a time,” he told reporters in Singapore.

“I feel quite good about where we are with our safeguarding approach in our sport.”

But Nowicki admitted that Yu could force a re-evaluation.

“She’s great. I mean, there’s a big future there for her. Hopefully there could be good things that could happen out of this, and it could be great,” he said.

But he added: “Obviously we have to make sure that that’s what it is, right? We don’t want to tip that balance and go the other way, and we have to be careful about that.”

“We’ll have a look and see whether we need to go steps further or whether we’re comfortable with where we are.”