Skateboarder Zheng Haohao is 11. She is also one of the youngest competitors at the Paris Olympics. That may be an impressively tender age to be an elite athlete but Zheng isn’t unique in her youth: she’s one of a clutch of formidable young Olympians at this year’s games.
There’s also Team USA’s Hezly Rivera who made her debut in gymnastics at the Paris Olympics, having just turned 16. Then there are the teens competing in their second Olympic Games. Team GB’s Sky Brown made her Olympic debut at the Tokyo games, aged 13 – and won a bronze medal. Brown won another bronze in Paris, despite carrying an injury. She’d just turned 16. Paris 2024 was also the second Olympics for 18-year-old Team USA swimmer Katie Grimes, who debuted at Tokyo aged just 15.
The youngest known Olympic athlete is ten-year-old gymnastic bronze medal winner Dimitrios Loundras, who competed in the 1896 games at Athens. As you can guess, then, there is no age limit for competitors in the Olympic Games – unless a specific International Sports Federation wishes to introduce one. This means that as long as young athletes show they’re good enough, they can compete at the Olympic and Paralympic Games against the world’s best.
