Xu Jiayu

Xu Jiayu is a Chinese competitive swimmer who specialises in the backstroke, born in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, on 19 August 1995. He is an Olympic silver medalist in the 100 metre backstroke at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro and 2024 Paris Games, and won two consecutive world titles in the 100 metre backstroke, in Budapest in 2017 and Gwangju in 2019. His mother Yu Zhenzhen is a former butterfly swimmer who taught him from the age of four, and he is an alumnus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In 2014 he broke Chinese records in the 50 m, 100 m and 200 m backstroke at the national championships, and at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon he took two silver medals and a bronze as well as relay gold. He finished fourth in the 200 metre backstroke at the 2016 Olympics.