Yu Yiting Joins Elite 200 IM Company Leading to Paris Showdown
When Yu Yiting captured her first medal at a global-level competition two months ago in Fukuoka, she was undoubtedly the beneficiary of some positive circumstances. She won World Championships bronze, joining American compatriots Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh on the podium, but the event was missing some serious firepower.
Now, Yu has the time credentials to match her medal. Her mark of 2:07.75 from the Asian Games Monday cut one second from her previous best time and made her the 10th-fastest performer in history. She is three-quarters of a second quicker than the 2:08.52 that Yui Ohashi swam to out-duel Walsh for Olympic gold two years ago.
The problem? Four of the women ahead on the all-time list have posted their best times within the last 16 months. Yu, who turned 18 three weeks ago, has now joined the Americans, Australia’s Kaylee McKeown and Canada’s Summer McIntosh, who is one year younger than Yu, as the chief contenders leading into the Paris Olympics.
Walsh improved from her Tokyo silver medal to score a world title in dominant fashion in 2022, but Douglass, the Olympic bronze medalist in the 200 IM two years ago and Walsh’s teammate at the University of Virginia, made a triumphant return to the long course race in 2023, overtaking Walsh down the stretch to earn gold. The two have achieved similar lifetime bests, with Douglass sitting at 2:07.09 for sixth all-time, just fractions ahead of Walsh (2:07.13).
Kaylee McKeown — Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
Of course those two only became favored for a 1-2 finish at Worlds when McKeown was disqualified in the semifinals for an illegal backstroke-to-breaststroke turn. The call was a tough one for such a significant moment, but video evidence confirmed the decision, leaving McKeown to take her frustration out on the backstroke events, sweeping 50, 100 and 200-meter golds. Perhaps the 22-year-old Aussie would have been compromised in the 200 IM final, since she would have just raced in the 100 back semifinals, but surely McKeown would have been good enough for a medal in that race.
The obvious beneficiary of the DQ? Yu, whose bronze-medal time of 2:08.74 was one-and-a-half seconds shy of McKeown’s best time from earlier in the year, the 2:07.19 which puts her eighth all-time.
Then there’s McIntosh, better known for her abilities in mid-distance freestyle, butterfly and the 400 IM, but after winning gold in the shorter medley at last year’s Commonwealth Games, she began seriously pursuing the 200-meter race. At the Canadian Trials this spring, in between her 400 freestyle and 400 IM world records, she blasted a mark of 2:06.89, making her the fourth-fastest woman ever at this distance. Before that race, no swimmer had gone under 2:07 since Katinka Hosszu and Siobhan-Marie O’Connor both did so in the 2016 Olympic final.
McIntosh dropped the 200 IM from her Worlds program this year, citing an already-full event schedule. The meet got off to a rough start for the young Canadian as she shockingly finished off the podium in the 400 free, but she earned bronze in a scintillating 200 free final before defending her titles in the 200 fly and 400 IM.
If McIntosh does pick up the 200 IM for next year’s Olympics, she’s probably the gold-medal favorite, and given her likely schedule of the events, this one fits, with its placement on the seventh and eighth days of competition after any of her other main events. But the competition she will face? Extremely daunting.
Just two years after no one went sub-2:08 and only two women swam 2:08s in an Olympic final, there are now five in 2:07-territory this year alone. In a hypothetical Olympic final featuring all five, Yu might have the most early speed, but Douglass and McIntosh are both internationally-acclaimed butterflyers. McKeown is certainly the best backstroker, and both Americans excel on breaststroke, which is Yu’s weak stroke. McIntosh and Douglass are the best freestylers.
If it was not already crowded enough with the Americans, McKeown and McIntosh, Yu has now announced her presence in this star-studded race.