Kokona Hiraki
We take a look at the look at the youngest Olympic medalist in the history of the event
Olympic medalists begin their quest at the youngest age in order to create history for the nation.
It is a long way to the top for the athletes who put in enormous amounts of effort and hardwork to achieve their goals. The wide range of ages participating in the Olympics goes to show the diversity of competition at the highest level to attain a Gold for their country.
Dimitrios Loundras was a Greek gymnast who competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. He was a naval officer later on and worked for the Greek Navy.
At 10 years 218 days, he remains the youngest medalist in Olympic history. Loundras competed in the team parallel bars event. Loundras later became part of the Hellenic Navy as an officer and reached the highs of a Rear Admiral rank. In 1936, he worked at the Lesbos Prefecture as a prefect.
He later served on Greece’s Olympic committee as an adult. There is no universal minimum age for Olympians set by the International Olympic Committee, but individual sports have eligibility limits. Gymnasts must be 16 years old to compete, while boxers must have turned 18. Olympic skateboarding, notably, has no minimum age requirement which is what we witnessed in the Tokyo Olympics.
Momiji beat Brazilian Rayssa Leal, also 13, and Japan’s Funa Nakayama, at 16, for the women’s street gold medal Monday afternoon at Ariake Urban Sports Park. The event was making its debut at the Olympics.
The previous record by a Japanese was set by swimmer Kyoko Iwasaki at the Barcelona Games in 1992. She became the youngest swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal at 14. Momiji was elated after creating history saying:
“I didn’t think I was going to be able to win, halfway through,” she said in a televised interview with NHK shortly after the results were announced. But the other skaters were encouraging me so I felt like I could go on.”
Nishiya ended on15.26 points to claim the gold. Leal took silver with 14.64 points and Nakayama claimed bronze with 14.49.
Kokona Hiraki, created history by becoming the youngest to win a medal at the Olympics. This occured in the same week after Momoji broke the record in skateboarding.
“I was enjoying it just as usual. I wasn’t as nervous as usual,” she said after winning silver at the Olympics in Tokyo.
Great Britain’s Sky Brown, 13, claimed the bronze medal in park skating competition with her last run. This makes her the youngest Olympian to win a medal for Great Britain.
“Anyone can do skateboarding. You don’t have to be of a certain height or a certain age — you can do it whenever you want . You just got to skate and go for it. It was a hard time for my parents. It was a hard time for a lot of people. Coming back and getting bronze is really so cool. I’m really happy. It really made me stronger.” (h/t CNN)
Brown won bronze with 56.47 points. At the age of 13 years and 20 days, Brown had a tough journey to the top. She suffered career-ending injuries before the Olympics which could have ruled her out for good.
She has fractured her skull, broken her left wrist, and suffered lacerations to her lungs and stomach. Despite all odds, she leaves Tokyo as a Olympic bronze medalist to everyone’s jubilation.
