Paris 2024 Olympic Games: Who is the youngest Olympian ever? Who is the oldest? How old is skateboarder Zheng Haohao? - Eurosport (2024)

Zheng Haohao became the youngest athlete at Paris 2024 when she dropped in for her first run in the women’s skateboarding prelims on Tuesday.

In doing so, the 11-year-old also became the youngest Olympian to represent the People’s Republic of China, just five days before her 12th birthday.

In fact, Zheng was born just one day before the closing ceremony at London 2012.

British professional skateboarder Danny Wainwright took the youngster under his wing before Zheng surged from 43rd to 26th in the world rankings.

Receiving one of four universality quota places to qualify, Zheng is sharing the park with 51-year-old Andy Macdonald of Great Britain at Paris 2024.

But the veteran skater is not even the oldest competitor at these Games, as that title is taken by Spanish dressage rider Juan Antonio Jimenez, who turned 65 in May.

But can Jimenez or Zheng claim the title of oldest and youngest Olympian of all time respectively? Who is the youngest and oldest medallist ever at the Olympics? Who is the oldest surviving Olympian?

The record for the youngest-ever Olympian was set 128 years ago at the very first modern Games in 1896.

Competing in his native Athens, Dimitrios Loundras won bronze in the team parallel bars event at the age of 10 years and 218 days.

Incidentally, he was also the last surviving athlete from the inaugural Olympics, going on to serve in World War I and World War II in the Greek navy.

However, historians have questioned the possibility of an even younger Olympian, with an unnamed French coxswain thought to be between seven and 10 years of age.

Although we do not know the boy’s name, we know he weighed approximately 33kg and pictures still survive of the athlete who coxed the Dutch pair of Francois Antoine Brandt and Roelof Klein to Olympic gold in 1900.

The story goes that the Netherlands crew ditched their original and heavier cox Hermanus Gerardus Brockmann in favour of the French youngster after losing to France in the heats.

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Born in 1847, Oscar Swahn holds the record as the oldest Olympian ever as well as the title of oldest gold medallist of all time.

The Swedish sports shooter scooped six medals across three Olympic Games, starting in 1908 when he topped the podium in both the individual and team single-shot running deer event.

Thankfully, shooters did not actually aim at real deer in the discipline that was discontinued in 1956, but at a moving target with concentric circles.

Swahn had to wait until 1920 before extending his own record as the oldest Olympian ever, competing with his son Alfred in the team event at the ripe age of 72 years 280 days.

Sweden won silver in the team competition that year, making him the oldest Olympic medallist ever, as well as the oldest gold medallist when hosts Sweden took the team title in 1912.

Interestingly enough, the third oldest Olympian ever, equestrian Hiroshi Hoketsu of Japan, can lay claim to the unusual record of longest period between appearances at an Olympics.

The Duke University graduate first competed in Tokyo 1964 before his next Olympic bow at Beijing 2008 – a gap of 44 years.

At the time of writing, France’s Yvonne Chabot-Curtet is the oldest living person who has competed at an Olympic Games.

The long-jumper did not medal at either the London 1948 or the Helsinki 1952 Games, but she currently tops the standings as the oldest surviving Olympian.

Born in May 1920, Chabot-Curtet is 104 years old and lived to see her daughter Jacqueline claim the French title and break the national record just as she did.

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