Paris Olympics beginning in a mere 72 hours is proving to be a space for all, from an 11-year-old skateboarder to sexagenarian equestrian making their debut on July 26.
An adage, Age is just a number, is seeing its surface in the Olympics where none is too old or too young to compete.
For the Indian contingent, a 14-year-old swimmer will draw inspiration from a 44-year-old tennis stalwart.
A broader look at the youngest vis-à-vis oldest athletes competing in the Game:
Starting from the east representing China in the game, Zheng Haohao, skateboarder is the second youngest after 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.
At the young age of 11 years and 11 months, Zheng will be the youngest competitor at the Paris Games. She started skateboarding, a sport that was introduced in the Olympics 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.
"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 the French capital.
Further, the skateboarding will also feature, Canadian skateboarder Fay De Fazio Ebert, who is 14-years-old. And 16-year-olds from the USA, Quincy Wilson, and Hezly Rivera, and from Great Britain, Lola Tambling and Sky Brown.
In the equestrian we have our oldest, Jill Irving from Canada, who is the oldest competitor when she makes her Olympics debut in Paris at 61 years, more than five times the age of Zheng.
In the reserve section of the equestrian team, Australian Mary Hanna, 69 may have her chances for a dressage event. She has competed at six Olympics since the 1996 Atlanta edition and would be called 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 made her FEI debut in 2013 and has had multiple top-10 finishes since then. She also helped Canada win the dressage gold medal at the 2019 Pan American Games.
She learned to ride at a local club five decades ago when she was a kid. But even decades after she first saddled up, she could not fulfill her dream of taking part in the Olympics, till Paris called.
Irving began taking the sport seriously only after her children left home in 2008. 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 contenders who crossed 50:
Equestrians, Mario Deslauriers, 59 from Canada, and Carl Hester, 57 from Great Britain will be seen competing. Other than that, Nino Salukvadze from Georgia at 55 is contending in shooting and Andy Macdonald at 50, skateboarding from Great Britain.
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