Asian Games 2026 MVPs: Meet teenage sensation Yu Zidi and dash king Puripol Boonson

The Asian Games have discovered two new superstars.China’s 13-year-old swimming sensation Yu Zidi and Thailand’s 20-year-old sprinting powerhouse Puripol Boonson have been named the Female and Male Most Valuable Players of the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) on Sunday.The pair have been rewarded for spectacular campaigns by which they mixed a number of gold medals with a string of Asian Games and Asian information, rising as two of the brightest younger stars of the continental showpiece.Yu and Boonson will every obtain USD 25,000 from the OCA for his or her performances.

Yu Zidi: Teen sensation makes historical past

Yu was one of many breakout stars of Aichi-Nagoya, successful three particular person gold medals at simply 13 years of age and changing into the youngest MVP in Asian Games historical past.Her golden run started within the girls’s 200m butterfly, the place she clocked 2:05.08 on September 20 to set a brand new Games Record.A day later, she produced an much more spectacular efficiency within the girls’s 200m particular person medley. Her time of two:06.10 set a brand new Games Record and lowered the Asian Record.Yu accomplished her hat-trick on September 23, successful the ladies’s 400m particular person medley in 4:28.56, one other Games Record.Three occasions, three golds and 4 information made the Chinese teenager one of many defining faces of the Games.

Yu Zidi of China (AP Photo)

Boonson: Thailand’s dash king

If Yu dominated the pool, Boonson owned the observe.The 20-year-old Thai sprinter stormed to a 100m-200m double, setting 4 Asian Games Records and equalling an Asian Record throughout his marketing campaign.In the lads’s 100m, Boonson first broke the Games Record with 9.91 seconds within the semifinal earlier than going even quicker within the remaining, clocking 9.90 seconds to say gold on September 25.Two days later, he accomplished the dash double within the 200m. His successful time of 19.88 seconds broke his personal Games Record of 20.10 seconds and equalled the Asian Record.He additionally added a silver medal in Thailand’s blended 4x100m relay, additional underlining his affect in Aichi-Nagoya.

Thailand’s Puripol Boonson celebrates after successful the lads’s 200m remaining. (Reuters Photo)

Stars with Los Angeles in sight

The OCA MVP Awards Panel stated the choice was significantly troublesome due to the distinctive high quality of performances throughout the Games.Tayyab Ikram, chair of the five-member panel, stated Yu and Boonson had established themselves as “Asian sports activities superstars” and backed them to realize even larger success on the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.Their choice locations them alongside a distinguished checklist of earlier Asian Games MVPs, together with Japan’s Koji Ito and Kosuke Kitajima, China’s Lin Dan and Rikako Ikee, and the 2022 winners Qin Haiyang and Zhang Yufei.For Yu, nonetheless solely 13, and Boonson, at 20, Aichi-Nagoya may show to be solely the start. The Asian Games gave the continent two spectacular new stars — and a glimpse of what may lie forward on the Olympic stage.