An 11-year-old who was born on the penultimate day of the London 2012 Olympics has become China’s youngest Olympian.

Zheng Haohao was among the competitors in the women’s skateboarding park in Paris, which also featured Team GB teenager Sky Brown.

Zheng scored a best of 63.19 to finish 18th in the preliminary round - missing out on a final that was won by Australia’s Arisa Trew, 14.

Having only taken up skateboarding at the age of seven, she leaves France as one of the youngest Olympians of all time.

And she has further reason to celebrate this week - she turns 12 on Sunday.

Olympic skateboarding has featured a largely youthful field at both of its Games so far.

All three medallists in Paris were teenagers, with Brown, 16, and Japan’s Kokona Hiraki, 15, repeating their podium finishes from the last Games.

Brazil’s Dora Varella was the veteran of the event at 23, but skateboarding is not exclusively for the young, with 51-year-old Andy Macdonald set to compete for Team GB in the men’s event.

Macdonald has won eight gold medals at the X Games - all before Zheng was born.

But Macdonald has nothing on the oldest athlete at the Paris Games, with Juan Antonio Jimenez of Spain competing in the equestrian at the age of 65.

Zheng, meanwhile, will go down in the history books alongside the likes of Dimitrios Loundras, who took team bronze in gymnastics in 1896 at the age of 10 and remains the youngest confirmed Olympic athlete.

His record may have been surpassed by a boy, thought to be seven or eight, who coxed a Dutch boat in Paris in 1900, but his identity remains unknown.

Marjorie Gesting of the United States is the youngest female gold medallist in the history of the summer Games, winning 3m springboard diving gold at the age of 13 in 1936.

Zheng may not have surpassed her, but a gold in Los Angeles in four years’ time would be an excellent 16th birthday present.

Source: BBC
--Agencies