Athletes of all ages to compete in Paris Olympics

Zheng Haohao, the youngest athlete at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, is only 11 years and 11 months old. She will celebrate her 12th birthday on the closing day of the Paris Olympics on Aug. 11.

The record for the youngest Olympian is held by Dimitrios Loundras, a Greek gymnast who competed in the first modern Summer Olympics in 1896 at the age of 10 years and 218 days, according to Paris Olympics website.

Zheng Haohao of China competes during the women’s park preliminaries of skateboarding at the Olympic Qualifier Series Budapest in Budapest, Hungary, June 20, 2024. Photo by Xinhua via AFP

The Chinese skateboarder recently finished elementary school in Huizhou, Guangdong, in early July. Zheng secured her Olympic spot after qualifying events in Budapest and Shanghai. She began skateboarding at the age of 7 “for fun.”

“Somebody told me skateboarding was fun and I bought one. It is fun indeed,” Zheng told Outlook India. “I was watching an older girl competing in a qualifier for the Tokyo Olympics. She looked really cool, and I was fascinated by skateboarding right away.”

Paris 2024 marks the second Summer Olympics to include skateboarding as an event. Skateboarding is also the sport with the most young athletes, many of whom are teenagers.

In contrast, the oldest athlete, Jill Irving, is five times Zheng Haohao’s age. Paris 2024 is also the first Olympics for the Canadian equestrian. Having started horse riding as a young girl, Irving realized her dream of competing in the Olympics after five decades. She helped the Canadian team win a gold medal in dressage at the 2019 Pan American Games.

Jill Irving was supposed to compete in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, but the event was delayed for one year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and her horse became too old to compete.

Another equestrian, Mary Hanna of Australia, is 69 years old, older than Jill Irving, but she is only on the reserve list. Mary Hanna will compete in Paris only if another member of the Australian equestrian team is injured or ill.

The record for the oldest Olympian is held by Swedish shooter Oscar Swahn, who competed in the 1920 Antwerp Olympics at the age of 72.