Age is No Barrier: Youngest and Oldest Olympians Set to Shine in Paris

The upcoming Paris Olympics will see athletes of varying ages competing on the global stage. From an 11-year-old skateboarder to a 61-year-old equestrian debutant, age proves no obstacle. Notable Indian participants include a 14-year-old swimmer and a 44-year-old tennis stalwart. The event underscores the inclusivity and diversity of the Olympic Games.

Age is just a number, goes the old adage. And it seems particularly true for the Olympics where none is too old or too young to compete.

So, an 11-year-old skateboarder will share the same global stage with a sexagenarian equestrian, who will be making her debut at the Paris Games starting July 26.

In the Indian contingent too, a 14-year-old swimmer will draw inspiration from a 44-year-old tennis stalwart. PTI takes a look at the oldest and youngest competitors who will be seen in the French capital.

Zheng Haohao (China, skateboarding) ======================== At 11 years and 11 months, skateboarder Zheng will be the youngest competitor at the Paris Games. She is a year older than the youngest ever Olympian, Greek gymnast Dimitrios Loundras, who competed at the inaugural edition of the modern Games in 1896 at the age of 10 years and 218 days.

Zheng, who turns 12 on August 11, booked her ticket to Paris after the Qualification Series in Budapest and Shanghai.

She started skateboarding, a sport introduced in the 2020 Tokyo Games, as a seven-year-old for ''fun''. ''Somebody told me skateboarding was fun and I bought one. It is fun indeed,'' said Zheng, who just completed primary school in Huizhou this month.

''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,'' she said. The sport, which involves athletes skating across a bowl-shaped course and performing gravity-defying tricks, will take place at the famous Place de La Concorde in the heart of Paris.

Canadian skateboarder Fay De Fazio Ebert, aged 14, as well as USA's Quincy Wilson and Hezly Rivera, along with Lola Tambling and Sky Brown from Great Britain, all aged 16, will join Zheng as teenage athletes in the competition.

Jill Irving (Canada, equestrian) ===================== On the other hand, Canadian equestrian team member Jill Irving will be the oldest competitor when she makes her Olympics debut in Paris at 61 years, more than five times the age of Zheng.

Australian Mary Hanna, who has competed at six Olympics since the 1996 Atlanta edition, is even older at 69 years but she is a travelling reserve in the equestrian team (for dressage event) and may not compete at all in Paris.

She would participate only in case of injury or illness to another member of the Australian team.

The oldest ever Olympian was shooter Oscar Swahn of Sweden, who was 72 when he competed at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics.

Irving learned to ride at a local club five decades ago, when she was a child. Despite many years of riding, she could not fulfill her dream of participating in the Olympics—until now. She began taking the sport seriously only after her children left home in 2008. She made her FEI debut in 2013 and has had multiple top-10 finishes since then. She even helped Canada win the dressage gold medal at the 2019 Pan American Games.

She was supposed to take part in the Tokyo Olympics, but her horse grew too old to compete when the Games were postponed by one year. Other participants in the Paris Games who have already celebrated their 50th birthday include Mario Deslauriers (equestrian, 59) of Canada, Carl Hester (equestrian, 57) of Great Britain, Nino Salukvadze (shooting, 55) of Georgia, and Andy Macdonald (skateboarding, 50) of Great Britain.

Dhinidhi Desinghu (swimming, youngest Indian) ============================== At 14 years and two months, Dhinidhi Desinghu will be the youngest Indian athlete at the Paris Olympics when she competes in the women's 200m freestyle.

The ninth grade student from Bengaluru qualified for the Olympics through the universality quota system, which allows representation of countries even if their athletes have not achieved direct qualification standards.

Desinghu is the second youngest Indian Olympian. Swimmer Aarti Saha at 11 years old participated in women's 200m breaststroke during the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.

Bhajan Kaur (archery, 18 years) and Esha Singh (shooting, 19 years) are among other young Indian participants at the Paris Games.

Rohan Bopanna (tennis, oldest Indian at 44) ============================= At 44 years and four months, Bopanna will be the oldest Indian athlete at the Paris Olympics. He will be playing at the Olympics for the third time and will be pairing with Sriram Balaji in men's doubles. When he made his debut during the 2012 London Olympics, Bopanna partnered with Mahesh Bhupathi.

Four years later in the Rio Olympics, Bopanna teamed up with Leander Paes and the duo lost in the second round. But in mixed doubles, Bopanna and Sania Mirza were one match away from winning the bronze medal.

He became the oldest tennis player to be ranked world No. 1 in ATP doubles in January this year and won the Australian Open men's doubles title at the age of 43. Bopanna is the second oldest tennis player after Sydney Jacob to qualify for the Olympics. Jacob was 44 years and 267 days old when he played in the men's doubles at the 1924 Paris Olympics.

The oldest Indian Olympian is skeet shooter Bhim Singh Bahadur who competed at the age of 66 during the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

Among others, table tennis ace A Sharath Kamal is 42 and set to compete in his fifth Olympics, and archer Tarundeep Rai, 40, will be in his fourth Olympics at Paris.

(With inputs from agencies.)