Swim prodigy Yu would've felt 'opposite of nervous'

Sharron Davies will never forget the thrill of swimming at the Olympics as a 13-year-old and is sure Chinese sensation Yu Zidi will have felt similar excitement as the youngest world championship medallist at 12.

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LONDON - Sharron Davies will never forget the thrill of swimming at the Olympics as a 13-year-old and is sure Chinese sensation Yu Zidi will have felt similar excitement as the youngest world championship medallist at 12.

Pre-teen prodigy Yu made headlines when she took bronze with China's women's 4x200m freestyle relay team in Singapore in July.

Davies swam for Britain at 11 and made her Olympic debut in Montreal in 1976. At 14, she won two bronzes at the European championships and by 15 was a double Commonwealth Games champion.

While some have raised questions about safeguarding, mental health, stress and the ethics of someone competing at the elite level while still so young, Davies saw no reason to be concerned.

"I don't have any particular qualms," she told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"It didn't traumatise me. In fact, when you're young, people presume that this is going to make you extremely nervous, but in fact, the opposite happens.