Who are the youngest and oldest athletes who will participate in the 2024 Olympics in Paris?

The countdown has begun for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games which commence on Friday. The summer showcase will bring together the top athletes from the world over: household names, national and world record holders, legends... sportsmen and women of all ages, some preparing for the heady adrenaline rush of their first Games, and seasoned veterans who have been here many times while for a few, this might be their last.

So who are the youngest and oldest athletes who will be taking part in the Paris Games, and who are the youngest and oldest medal winners?

Zheng Haohao kicking back in Paris

One of these young stars who will try to break out in the Tokyo Olympic Games will be Chinese skateboarder Zheng Haohao, who will be one of the youngest participants in history in the Olympic event at only 11 years old.

Haohao, who is China’s youngest Olympian, sealed her ticket for the Games in the Skating Pre-Olympic that took place in Shanghai and Budapest and will participate in a discipline that at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games already brought together the youngest podium in history with the Japan’s Nishiya Momiji, claiming gold at 13 years old, Brazil’s Rayssa Leal, who took home the silver medal also at 13 years old, and Japan’s bronze medal winner Nakayama Funa, the oldest of three at 16 years old.

Haohao starts with options of becoming the youngest champion at a summer Olympics in history. An honor that, for the moment, belongs to North American Marjorie Gestring, who won gold in springboard jumping at the age of 13 years and 268 days at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.

Mary Hanna back for her seventh Olympics

At the opposite end of the spectrum is Australian equestrian Mary Hanna. Hanna, who took part in her first games at Atlanta 1996, will turn 70 in December and this will almost certainly be her last taste of the Olympics as a competitor. She is the oldest athlete taking part in the Paris Games, ahead of two fellow rivals in the equestrian event - Canadian pair Jill Irving (61) and Mario Deslauriers (59).

Hanna is an emergency reserve for Team Australia in the dressage event so she might not get to compete. She could be called on only if any other members of the team (Jayden Brown, William Matthew and Simone Pearce) suffer an injury or illness. At Rio 2016, at 61, she became the oldest Australian athlete ever to compete at the Olympics, beating the previous record holder Bill Roycroft, who competed at Montreal aged 61, by a few months.

The oldest Olympic medal winners

Even if she does end up saddling up in Paris, Hanna would still not be the oldest Olympian. The record is still held by Great Britain’s John Copley who took part in the 1948 Games in one of the less strenuous events - Art, Mixed Painting, Engravings, and Etchings. The Mancunian painter picked up the silver medal aged 73, during the last Games in which the art competition was held.

The oldest athlete to win a gold medal was Oscar Swahn. He represented Sweden at three Games - London 1908, Stockholm 1912 and Antwerp 1920, competing alongside his son Alfred.

At the 1912 Games, he was part of the team that took gold in the Men’s 100 meter team running deer, single shots event. At 64 years and 258 days of age, he remains the oldest gold medalist in Olympic history.

Four years later in Antwerp, he and his son were part of the Swedish team that finished second in the Team 100 m running deer,double shots event, to also become, at 72 years and 281 days old, the oldest silver medalist at an Olympic Games - excluding the now-defunct art competition.