For her 7th birthday, Zheng Haohao received her first skateboard as a gift, igniting a passion that would take her around the world. For her 12th birthday, this Sunday, she’ll celebrate the closing ceremony in Paris — as an Olympic skateboarder.
Born Aug. 11, 2012 — the day before the London Olympics’ closing ceremony — Zheng marked her entrance to skateboarding competition at China’s National Games three years ago, per Reuters. At 9 years old, she was the youngest athlete to compete, and she’s been skating through records ever since.
Last year, at age 10, she joined the World Skateboarding Games, marking her entrance on the global stage. She qualified for Paris in the Budapest Olympic Qualifier Series less than two months ago. Her qualifying routine? The notoriously difficult 540 flip, which she attempted for the first time while competing.
“I feel I’m really kicking ass when I skateboard. I feel a bit narcissistic,” Zheng, who enjoys shopping and catching fish at temple fairs, told CCTV in a video interview, per Reuters.
This kind of gutsy, youthful confidence may be the secret sauce for success in Olympics skateboarding. Alexis Sablone, the U.S. women’s street skateboarding coach, explained to The New York Times that younger athletes benefit from their fearlessness.
“If you’re starting at a really young age and you see someone else doing something, you believe that’s possible and you just kind of like, skip to that,” she said. “Certain things come with experience, but the flip side of that is more awareness and fear.”
Sablone is speaking from her own personal experience. She competed in the women’s street skateboarding competition in the sport’s Olympic debut at the 2021 Tokyo Games, earning fourth place. Skateboarding at the Olympics is young compared to other sports, just like its athletes.
According to the Times, more than half of the females competing in skateboarding in Paris are teenagers, including two 15-year-olds from Spain; 14-year-olds from Australia, Japan, and France; a 16-year-old from the United States; and a 12-year-old from Thailand.
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It’s Zheng, though, who represents not just the youngest woman to compete in skateboarding, but the youngest person to compete in this summer’s Games.
“It’s honestly kind of insane how young the field is getting,” American street skater Poe Pinson told the Times. “There weren’t really that many girls skating when I was growing up, so it’s pretty cool.” At 19, Pinson is considered a more senior competitor.
There is no specific age limit for taking part in the Olympic Games, according to the International Olympic Committee; age guidelines depend on each International Sports Federation. For example, the International Gymnastics Federation, or FIG, requires gymnasts to be 16 in order to compete.
But the gymnastics age guidelines haven’t always been in effect. The youngest athlete to ever compete at an Olympics was Dimitrios Loundras, a male gymnast from Greece who won a bronze medal at age 10 in the 1896 Athens Games.
Zheng is the youngest Olympian to ever represent China, and tied for the youngest female athlete to ever compete at a Summer Games. Italian gymnast Luigina Giavotti earned a silver medal at age 11 in the 1928 Amsterdam Summer Games.
Zheng Haohao competes during the women’s park preliminaries of skateboarding at the Olympic Qualifier Series Budapest in Budapest, Hungary, on June 20, 2024
And how do Zheng’s parents feel about her competing? Wang Zhe, Zheng’s mother, told China Daily that she initially resisted her daughter’s skateboarding aspirations, and wanted her to stop after she sustained teeth and leg injuries from countless falls during training. Zheng eventually won over her mom’s support with her enthusiasm and persistence, practicing skateboarding tricks every day after school. She’s also a diligent student who loves to study and write, according to her coach, Danny Wainwright. He noted that Zheng requests that he add fun colors to her checklist of tricks to complete, and she enjoys doodling and creating drawings alongside those checkmarks.
Prior to skateboarding, Zheng tried her hand at other activities: “I practiced painting and dancing, but those are too quiet,” she told China Daily. “It’s real fun when the skateboard flies up.” And it’s that fun that motivates Zheng to compete in the Olympics, which feel for her as much like a game with friends as they do an opportunity to earn a medal on the world’s stage.
“Competition to me is just to get together with my good friends,” Zheng told Reuters, adding that she’s pals with a number of pros in the field. “It’s like we are playing a fun game — everyone has to show the best they’ve got.”
We’ll be cheering on Zheng and her fellow competitors as they compete Tuesday in the women’s park event, and wishing her a very happy birthday during Sunday’s closing ceremony.
One selfie we’d love to see before the Games wrap: Zheng and Juan Antonio Jimenez Cobo of Spain, her fellow record-setting Olympian with whom she shares a 54-year age gap. At 65 years old, the equestrian is the oldest Olympian to compete at this summer’s Games, with Paris marking his third Olympics: He competed in Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004. His Paris competition represents two decades since his last Olympic performance.
Spain’s Juan Antonio Jimenez Cobo with horse Euclides Mor competes in the equestrian’s dressage individual grand prix day 2 during the Paris Games on July 31, 2024
Cobo is joined in Paris by 69-year-old Mary Hanna, who was designated as a non-competing athlete for the Australian equestrian team. This is her seventh Olympics, coming only four months shy of her 70th birthday.
The oldest-ever Olympic competitor was Swedish shooter Oscar Swahn, who won his first gold medal at age 60 in 1908 and then competed at two more Olympic Games — most senior at age 72 in the 1920 Antwerp Summer Games, where he won silver.
The range of athletes at the Olympics shows us that we’re never too old (or young) to pursue a new challenge. With more than 10,000 competitors in Paris from all around the world, there’s a wide variety of ages, body types, identities, and life experiences to provide us all a point of inspiration and relatability. Taking to her Weibo social media account, Zheng said of the message she wants to tell the world: “Even though I am young, I can skate well. I want to fulfill the dreams many adults have.”
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