Young Chinese teen stars make waves with golds, records and breakthroughs at Asian Games
Gold medalist China's Zhanshuo Zhang celebrates on the podium at the medal ceremony for the Swimming Men's 800m Freestyle on day five of the 20th Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya at Tokyo Aquatics Centre on September 24, 2026 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo: VCG)
At an Asian Games in which established champions remain central to China's medal campaign, a younger generation of Chinese athletes is increasingly making itself impossible to overlook.
Thirteen-year-old swimmer Yu Zidi has already collected three individual gold medals and an Asian record, while 19-year-old Zhang Zhanshuo has taken six swimming titles while shouldering a demanding schedule. And in gymnastics, 16-year-old Ke Qinqin has followed an individual all-around silver with a team gold.
Swimmer Yu has been the most striking example so far.
Making her Asian Games debut at 13, Yu won the women's 200-meter butterfly in a Games-record 2:05.08 on Sunday before adding the 200m individual medley title in another Games record of 2:06.10.
On Wednesday, she completed her individual-event hat-trick by winning the 400m individual medley in 4:28.56, again setting a Games record.
After the third victory, Yu played down the idea that the three titles had come easily. "Definitely not. It did not feel easy. It was very tiring," she said. The teenager also narrowly missed an Asian record in the 400m individual medley.
"I was just a little short of the record, but I improved my time so I think that is pretty good," said Yu, who turns 14 next month and was already the youngest medalist in World Aquatics Championships history.
Her individual victories have come alongside a broader Chinese swimming campaign that has featured both established stars and younger swimmers.
Zhang has provided another example of China's younger generation taking on a substantial workload. The 19-year-old won the men's 1,500m freestyle on Tuesday and followed it with the men's 200m freestyle title on Wednesday.
He also anchored China's winning men's 4x200m freestyle relay earlier in the Games and then helped China claim the mixed 4x100m medley relay gold.
His heavy schedule has included the 1,500m freestyle one day before the 200m freestyle, but Zhang said such demands were part of his preparation.
"We prepare for situations like this in our regular training, so it is not a particularly big problem," he said. "You build your form race by race. It will keep getting better."
China's Ke Qinqin competes on the floor exercise during the women's team final of artistic gymnastics at the Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, on September 23, 2026. (Photo: VCG)
In gymnastics, Ke Qinqin has shown a different aspect of the same emerging generation: the ability to recover quickly when a competition does not go according to plan.
Ke took silver in the women's individual all-around on Tuesday with 55.199 points, finishing 0.400 behind Japan's Aiko Sugihara. Sugihara's victory ended China's run of 13 consecutive Asian Games women's individual all-around titles.
Ke then returned to the competition floor on Wednesday as China defended its women's team title. Alongside Zhang Qingying, Qiu Qiyuan, Du Siyu and Zhang Yihan, she helped China score 166.462 points and extend its winning streak in the event to 14 consecutive Asian Games titles.
Her own performance included a difficult moment on vault. But rather than allowing the mistake to affect the rest of the competition, Ke said she had to reset quickly.
"I could not let all of my emotions go into that one apparatus. I still had other apparatus to come, so I had to settle myself quickly, do the elements that followed one by one, step by step, and trust myself," she told the Global Times after the team final.
Her silver medal in the individual all-around had left her just short of a historic individual title, but Ke said the result could also serve as motivation for the future. "It has happened. I hope that through my own efforts, the next time I come to an Asian Games I can stand on a higher step of the podium," she said.
The younger faces will continue to appear as the Games move into their second week. Twelve-year-old skateboarder Cao Shiqi made her Asian Games debut on Thursday in the preliminary round, finishing fifth overall.
The youngest athlete in China's delegation at the Asian Games will compete in the final on Friday. The athletics program will also bring more teenagers into focus.
Seventeen-year-old sprinter Chen Yujie is set to compete in the women's sprint events. In August, she ran 11.08 seconds to win the women's 100 meters at the national championships, breaking the Asian U20 record.
In field competitions, 18-year-old Yan Ziyi will compete in the women's javelin. She had already broken the world U20 record three times before producing the 71.74-meter throw that transformed her into a senior-level global contender.