Hong Kong-A 12-year-old Chinese swimmer has become a global sensation with his history times, even when observers and fans return home are noticed against the over-overdraft of overvaluation of the young athlete.
On Thursday, Yu Zidi became the youngest medalist of the Aquatics World Championship, which will be held in Singapore this year.
Yu was part of the Chinese team that took the bronze in the freestyle of 4×200 female meters, with the United States of silver and gold winners of Australia. Although he did not compete in the final, he received a medal because he swam in the classification career.
“I was really excited to join the relay. He felt great,” Yu told reporters on Thursday. “The world championships are fun, and I hope to swim faster.”
The Chinese prodigy began to swim around 6 years just to overcome heat in its hometown of Hebei. She said she never thought about becoming a professional athlete until a coach approached her in a pool one day.
“At that time, I thought: Why not try training?” Yu told Xinhua, the China state news agency, in May.
Yu, who is also the youngest person in a medal in an important international competition since 1936, could win an individual medal on Sunday in the 400 -meter female potpourri. His times are so fast that they allowed him to compete in the Aquatics World Championship despite the fact that the minimum age requirement is usually 14.
She has already approached the medal in two other events in Singapore, losing the podium for 0.06 seconds in the popurri of 200 meters on Monday and 0.31 seconds in the butterfly of 200 meters female on Thursday.
In the Chinese National Championship in May, Yu finished the individual potpourri of 200 meters with a time of 2: 10.63, winning a silver medal and establishing a world record in the event for any child, man or woman of 12 years.
Acclaimed as the greatest swimmer in his age, Yu has been compared to phenomena such as Katie Ledecky of the United States and Canada’s summer Mcintosh, with times that would have put it on the verge of medaling themselves in the Olympic Games of Paris of 2024. The individual potpourri of 400 meters about 15 seconds faster than McIntosh was at the same age.
His impressive performance before a teenager is asked many how he could shape competitive swimming in the coming years.
But some Chinese sports and commentators’ fans have urged the public not to exaggerate the pre -adolescent star.
Yu’s sudden fame can expose it to a “disproportionate” pressure that could prevent its maximum potential from reaching, said the digital news media backed by the Shanghai state observing in an editorial on Thursday.
“We must let this 12 -year -old boy slowly become a wave,” he said, adding that “there is no need to hurry to the worship of heroes.”
The warning hinted at how China promotes its elite athletes following persistent Doping accusations and what has been criticized as a culture of “toxic” fans.
The success at the highest levels of sports has been fundamental for the construction of China’s national identity, with the government focused on dominating medal tables in the Olympic Games and other events.
But the impulse for gold medals also puts a lot of stress in the star athletes of the countries, as well as the intensity of public scrutiny.
The organized sports fandom emerged for the first time around 2016 when the users of Chinese social networks, tired of the sexual scandals that had fogged the healthy image of the pop stars they previously worshiped, began to follow the Olympic athletes, said Zhang Bin, a veteran sports commentator in China.
The new fans brought “sophisticated strategies” of the entertainment industry, triggering “Fandom Wars” among the different groups that tried to overcome each other to support their athletes, Zhang said.
The culture of Fans of Extreme Sports of China, which can include fanatical mobs, cyber athletes and child behavior in sporting events, was especially visible around the Paris Olympic Games last year.
When the winning diver of the Quan Hongchan gold medal returned to his hometown, the visitors went home for days. Some broadcast live with their phones, while others flew drones, and travel agencies even began offering tours of their people.
Pan Zhanle, an Olympic champion swimmer, was praised for dissolving his official admirers group after his success in Paris games overwhelmed him with a wave of new followers.
The Chinese government has been taking energetic measures, with its guardian dog of cyberspace saying in April that it had closed more than 3,700 social media accounts with illegal content or not as directed to Chinese athletes.
But sometimes frenzy goes beyond the Internet. The fan of the Chinese table player Zhendong, an Olympic gold medalist, said he was traumatized when a stranger slipped into his hotel room in 2023.
“I never thought that, as a athlete, I would have to go through something like this,” he told Phoenix TV last week, and added that organized abuse online had caused him a “severe” mental stress that contributed to several unexpected losses.
Since sports wonders naturally attract followers, fans could also be a concern for Yu in the future, said Zhang, who was in the World Aquatics championship in Singapore.
China is often overprotective of its athletes, but “it may not be good if Yu lives isolated as protected giant pandas,” he said.
“For athletes, learning to interact with the media is a necessary part of their development,” Zhang added.
Jessie Zhou, 23, postgraduate student in Hong Kong who closely follows the fan of the table tennis star, said it was a “good decision” for the Chinese media to cover Yu in a “restricted tone”, while the extreme sports fandom remains unsolved.
“Just let the child remain focused on training,” Zhou said.
