DgcityChang Mohan arrived at the final day of swimming at the Dakar Youth Olympics with two silver medals, an illness and a serious case of nerves. She left with two gold medals won within an hour, producing the performance of a young career and immediately setting her sights on 2028.
The 15-year-old faced three races on Friday in an outdoor pool where temperatures climbed above 30 degrees. She had already finished second in the 200-meter breaststroke and 200-meter individual medley, the first of those silvers just 0.71 behind Japan’s Mana Ishikawa, and she arrived at the pool describing herself as physically and mentally at her lowest point of the year. Fever and diarrhea had hit her the previous day.
“I didn’t want to leave the final day with regrets, so I tried my best to adjust,” Chang said. She qualified third for the 200-meter freestyle final, then surged in the second half to win in 1:59.59, edging Croatia’s Ana Bobanovic. Almost immediately after the medal ceremony she was back in the warm-up pool preparing for the 200-meter butterfly.
The second final was less dramatic but even more commanding. Chang built a lead of 1.42 seconds over the first 100 meters and never let it close, winning in 2:09.93. The two titles made her the most decorated Chinese athlete of the Games to that point, with two golds and two silvers.
Together with Xie Yichen, who won the men’s 100-meter and 50-meter breaststroke titles, Chang helped China close its swimming program with seven medals: four golds and three silvers. The haul was a clear statement for a country better known in recent Olympic cycles for diving supremacy.
Chang herself was candid that the week could have gone better, and the late double felt like relief as much as triumph. One of China’s flagbearers at the opening ceremony, she carried expectations into Dakar and nearly sank under them before finding her finish.
Her 2026 is not over. Next is the short-course world championships in Beijing from December 1 to 6, a home-water finish to a year that ended, in the nick of time, on her own terms.
