Yu Zidi Named Female MVP of Asian Games
Chinese swimmer Yu Zidi was named the female MVP of the Asian Games, which wrapped up over the weekend in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
Yu was joined by Thailand track and field athlete Puripol Boonson, the male athlete of the Games. The awards were given by the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games Organizing Committee (AINAGOC) on Sunday, recognizing the two top athletes at the 43-sport, Olympic style event for 45 Asian nations.
Yu, who will turn 14 on Oct. 16, is the youngest woman ever to win the award. She won gold medals in the 200 butterfly, 200 individual medley and 400 individual medley. She set an Asian record and World Junior record in the 200 IM.
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Thanks in large part to Yu, China won gold in 30 of 41 events and topped the total medal table with 54. Only Japan cracked 20 with 37 total medals.
China won the overall medal table with 169 golds – more than twice as many as runner-up Japan’s 83 – and 341 total pieces of silverware, despite sporting authorities in the country worrying about the return midway through the tournament.
Boonson set an Asian Games record by running 9.90 in the final of the men’s 100-meter dash. He also won the 200 meters with an Asian record time of 19.88 seconds.
Boonson’s excellence edged Chinese swimmer Zhang Zhanshuo, who won four individual gold medals in freestyle to go with three relay golds. He set two competition records, one individual Asian record and was on two Asian-record relays. His seven gold medals is an Asian Games first.
Swimmers have traditionally done well with this award. The 2022 MVPs were Qin Haiyang and Zhang Yufei, the even in Hangzhou first time that a men’s and women’s award were given out separately. Japan’s Rikako Ikee won in 2018, as did countryman Kosuke Hagino in 2014. The 2006 award went to Park Tae-Hwan of South Korea, and Kosuke Kitajima of Japan won the second edition of the award in 2002.