Japanese skateboarders Coco Yoshizawa, 14, and Liz Akama, 15, earned the gold and silver medals in women’s street skateboarding on Sunday, per ESPN. The bronze medal went to 16-year-old Brazilian Rayssa Leal.
The 14-year-old started honing her skateboarding skills as a 7-year-old, and it was a big spin flip frontside boardslide — a trick she mastered during elementary school — that boosted her score high enough to earn gold, per Self Magazine.
Skateboarding made its Olympic debut during the 2020 Tokyo Games. The sport brought with it a slew of young athletes, most of whom were teenagers.
The first female skateboarder to win a gold medal was Momiji Nishiya, who was 13 when she won gold in Toyko in women’s street skateboarding, per Reuters. Nishiya’s win made her one of the youngest Olympic gold medalists of all time.
There is no age minimum to compete in skateboarding events in the Olympics, per NBC affiliate 9News. Other events do set age requirements.
Gymnasts must be at least 16 and boxers must be 18, for example. Each sport sets its own age requirements to compete.
The youngest skateboarder at this summer’s Olympics is just 11 years old, per NBC Olympics. As the sport becomes more and more popular, the list of youngest gold medal Olympians could continue to change.
Here is a look at the current standings for youngest Olympic gold medalists.
Who is the youngest Olympian competing in 2024?
The youngest Olympian competing at the Paris Olympic is China’s Zheng Haohao, who is 11 years, 11 months old, per Sportstar. Haohao is a skateboarder who will compete in the park event. If she wins, she’ll become the youngest Olympic gold medalist in modern history.
The youngest Olympic gold medalist remains a mystery
The true owner of the title of youngest Olympic gold medalist ever remains a mystery. It might be a French boy who was 10 or younger, per The New York Times.
At the Paris games in 1900, a pair of Dutch rowers recruited a local boy to serve as their coxswain, the article said. The trio won gold and took a photo. After the photo was taken, the boy disappeared. His identity has never been confirmed.
“The boy’s exact name, age and background all remain unknown to this day. But experts posit that he could very well be the youngest champion in modern Olympic history, if not its youngest competitor period,” according to Sports Illustrated.
Researchers believe the baby-faced coxswain may have been as young as 8, but evidence regarding the boy’s identity is flimsy, so we probably won’t ever know who he really is, per Sports Illustrated.
The 8 youngest Olympic gold medalists
Here is the current list of youngest Olympic gold medalists — based on confirmed identity and ages.
8. Nadia Comaneci: 14 years, 249 days
Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci won the first of her five Olympic gold medals during the 1976 Summer Olympics — she also set a record as the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 in the Olympics, per ESPN.
Mary Lou Retton is the only other gymnast to score a perfect 10 during the Olympics. Retton was 16 years old when she earned perfect 10s in vault and floor during the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
7. Krisztina Egerszegi: 14 years, 41 days
Krisztina Egerszegi won her first gold medal as a 14-year-old at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul. The Hungarian swimmer took the gold in the 200-meter backstroke and the silver in the 100-meter backstroke, per the Olympics site.
She returned to the Olympics twice more, earning five Olympic gold medals in total.
“To this day, I can be moved to tears when someone comes up to me and tells me what it meant to them when I was competing, where they were, what they were doing when I was swimming for gold,” Egerszegi told Hungary Today.
6. Kyoko Iwasaki: 14 years, 6 days
During the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Japanese swimmer Kyoko Iwasaki won gold in the 200-meter breaststroke, making her the youngest swimmer to ever win gold at the Olympics, per Japan Sports Journey.
“I don’t know what happened to me,” Iwasaki told Japan Sports Journey of her 1992 win. “Many athletes set their sights on the Olympics every four years and work hard daily. In my case, it just so happened that my peak coincided with the Olympics. To begin with, I was only 14 years old. I think it was also good that I could focus on swimming with vigor and without thinking about anything else.”
Iwasaki returned to the Olympics in 1996, but did not win another gold medal.
5. Fu Mingxia: 13 years, 345 days
Fu Mingxia took home her first Olympic gold medal in the 10-meter platform diving event during the 1992 Olympic Games before she was 14 years old, per the Olympic site.
The Chinese diver returned to the Olympic games twice more, earning a total of four gold medals.
4. Momiji Nishiya: 13 years, 330 days
Japanese teenager Momiji Nishiya took home the gold in women’s street skateboarding during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Her win made her Japan’s youngest gold-medal winner of all time, per Reuters.
“I welled up in tears because I was beyond happy,” Nishiya told Reuters about discovering she won gold.
3. Klaus Zerta: 13 years, 283 days
Klaus Zerta is the youngest male Olympian to win gold. The German served as a rowing coxswain at the 1960 Rome Olympics, per the Olympics site. He was awarded Germany’s Silver Laurel Leaf for his achievement.
Zerta did not return to the Olympics. He later became a tennis coach and worked as a construction manager, per the Olympics site.
2. Marjorie Gestring: 13 years, 267 days
At age 13, Marjorie Gestring made history as the youngest Olympian from the United States to win gold.
Gestring won the gold in springboard diving at the 1936 Berlin Games, per the Olympics site. She attempted to return to the Olympics for the 1948 games in London, but failed to qualify for the U.S. team.
1. Kim Yun-Mi: 13 years, 86 days
During the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics, South Korean speedskater Kim Yun-Mi won the gold in the women’s 3,000-meter relay — breaking the record for youngest gold medalist in history, per ESPN.
She became a two-time Olympic gold medalist at the 1998 Nagano games.
Yun-Mi’s speedskating record is unlikely to get broken. Since Yun-Mi competed at the 1994 games, the International Skating Union has gradually raised the minimum age to 17, per The International Olympic Committee.