2026 Asian Games Wrap-Up: SwimSwam’s Women’s Awards

2026 ASIAN GAMES

• September 20th – September 25th (pool swimming)
• Prelims at 10am local (9pm previous night ET)/Finals at 5pm local (4am ET)
• Tokyo Aquatics Centre
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• Entries
• Live Results
• Recaps

The 2026 Asian Games wrapped up last Friday, September 25th, which means we’ve had a few days to take stock of what transpired at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre over the course of the six-day competition.

In the end, we saw one World Record, seven Asian records and a remarkable 24 meet records go down, with China once again topping the overall swimming medal table, bagging 54 pieces of hardware.

Although China’s 54 medals here fell short of the 62 it claimed three years ago in Hangzhou, the nation reaped the same number of golds, with 30 to handily beat their competitors.

Now that the dust has settled, let’s take a look at the SwimSwam Awards recognizing several notable accomplishments. First on the women’s side, then there will be a separate post for the men’s.

Female Swimmer of the 2026 Asian Games

13-year-old Yu Zidi of China already made waves at the 2025 World Championships, where the then-12-year-old became the youngest-ever finalist and medalist at the competition.

But she took things one step further in her Asian Games debut, capturing a trio of individual medals across the 200m butterfly, 200m IM and 400m IM, registering lifetime bests in each race. She hit 2:05.08 in the 200m fly, an Asian Record of 2:06.10 in the 200m IM and a mark of 4:28.56 in the 400m IM.

Her times were not only phenomenal for the youngster’s own resume, but they sit among some of the world’s best, putting her on the right trajectory to potentially make some major noise at the 2028 Olympic Games when she’ll be 15 years of age.

At such a young age, Yu has demonstrated some maturity when it comes to analyzing her performances. She called her 2:05.08 200m fly time just ‘so-so’, via the South China Morning Post, adding that she believed her butterfly technique was “still slightly lacking.”

“I hope I can swim even faster. I improved my time by 0.9 seconds here, and I believe I will perform better next time.

“I need to lower my head earlier, reach farther forward and improve the movement of my legs.”

Yet her youth was also apparent, saying that “interviews are way harder than the race”, openly admitting that she struggles in front of large numbers of reporters.

“How do I answer this question? Can you teach me? You just want me to say what I feel?” she said after one question. (South China Morning Post)

Breakout Swimmer of the 2026 Asian Games

Singapore’s Ching Hwee Gan already owned multiple national records entering the Asian Games; however, the former Indiana University Hoosier held her own against the rest of Asia’s best when it came to the women’s distance freestyle events.

The 23-year-old multi-Southeast Asian (SEA) Games medalist secured her first-ever Asian Games medals, reaping silvers across the 400m, 800m, and 1500m freestyle events, proving she’s leveled up at this point in her career.

Gan’s times checked in at 4:06.81 in the 400m, 8:26.25 in the 800m and 16:00.45 in the 1500m, to bring her nation its only medals of the entire swimming competition.

Reflecting on the 800m free victory, Gan told The Straits Times, “It feels awesome. Never in my last two Asian Games campaigns did I think I could even touch a silver medal.

“The goal, which felt quite out of reach then, was a bronze. To stand on the podium, I would be so happy with that. And to surpass my own expectations, it’s been quite a journey, so it hasn’t really sunk in, but I’m super excited.”

Singapore’s Asian Games swimming co-head coach Eugene Chia, who has also been Gan’s coach since she was 11, said her results were “beyond our highest expectations”.

“If we set LA 2028 as a target meet for her, we will definitely look at her trying to be in the finals.

“We worked on her turns, which she did very well at this meet. Many competitors tend to close races faster, so we can look at improving on her speed.” (The Straits Times)

Women’s Performance of the Meet

Yu’s 2:06.10 200m IM performance marked a new Chinese Record, Asian Record, World Junior Record, and the 2nd-fastest swim in the history of the event.

The previous Chinese and Asian Records were Yu Yiting‘s swim of 2:06.82 at June’s Chinese National Championships. The previous Asian Games Record was a 2:07.75 set by her countrymate Yu Yiting at the last edition in 2023. Yu Yiting finished 2nd on Monday.

The previous World Junior Record was a 2:06.56 done by Summer McIntosh at the 2024 Olympic Games when she was 18.

Top 5 Performances All-Time, Women’s 200 IM (LCM)

1. Summer McIntosh, Canada – 2:05.70 (2025 Canadian Trials)
2. Yu Zidi, China – 2:06.10 (2026 Asian Games)
3. Katinka Hosszu, Hungary – 2:06.12 (2014 World Championships)
4. Ariana Kukors, USA – 2:06.15 (2009 World Championships)
5. Summer McIntosh, Canada – 2:06.56 (2024 Olympic Games)

In a post-race interview, she said that she wasn’t expecting to swim that fast. When asked if she was nervous before the race, she remarked that she just focused on the details of what she needed to do.

Splits Comparison

Special Achievement – Zhang Yufei

28-year-old Zhang Yufei of China became the most decorated female Asian Games swimmer of all time, bringing her career total to a remarkable 12 medals since her debut at the 2014 edition in Incheon.

Zhang’s game-changer in Tokyo this time around was her 50m butterfly victory, where the veteran and 10-time Olympic medalist successfully defended her title from 2023 in Hangzhou. During the same session, she helped China claim gold in the 4x100m medley relay in a new Games Record time of 3:54.55.

Zhang also earned 100m fly silver and an additional pair of relay golds to make her presence known as she continues to prepare for LA 2028.

The star admitted to Global Times before the Asian Games: “Part of me wonders whether I can still keep up with the younger athletes, while another part thinks, ‘Why can’t I?’”

She has proven she is still among the world’s best and a formidable competitor both individually and in the relay capacity.