ZHENG HAOHAO became China’s youngest ever Olympian as she thrilled fans with a brave run in the skateboarding.
The boarder lined up in the women’s park in Paris aged just 11.
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Born on August 11, 2012 – during London 2012 – the child prodigy turns 12 on Saturday.
And her appearance at Paris 2024 shattered the record books as the youngest athlete to represent China at the Olympics.
In fact, she became one of the youngest competitors from any country to take part in a Games.
Greek gymnast Dimitrios Loundras is understood to still hold the overall record.
He was just TEN when he competed at the 1896 Games in Athens, the first modern Olympics.
However, there are suggestions an even younger boy came in as a substitute coxswain for the Dutch rowing team four years later.
The youngest female is another gymnast, Luigina Giavotti who represented Italy in 1928 aged 11 years and 301 days – just two months younger than Zheng.
In the women’s park preliminaries, Zheng scored 63.19 on her first run at La Concorde.
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That was her best score after falls on her second and third runs in the heat before Britain’s Sky Brown and Lola Tambling.
Brown, now 16, became Team GB’s youngest Olympian and youngest medallist when she won bronze in the same event at Tokyo 2020 three years ago aged 13.
Reacting to Zheng competing at 11 years of age, one social media user said: “WOW 🤩 absolutely brilliant 🙌.”
While another added: “It’s amazing to see this.”
And a third replied: “Madness. She will take gold in 4 years, good experience for her.”