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A brand new technology of younger athletes is ready to make a splash in Tokyo.
Whereas many would consider that age and expertise play a think about who in the end wins gold, some Olympians have defied the chances lately to achieve the rostrum earlier than they’ve even reached school.
Listed below are among the youngest athletes competing within the upcoming Tokyo Video games:
Erriyon Knighton
Erriyon Knighton launched himself as one of many rising stars of the U.S. Olympic monitor and subject crew at simply 17 years outdated, ending third within the males’s 200m remaining on the Olympic trials in Eugene, Ore., in June 2021.
The rising highschool senior is the youngest American man to make the Olympic monitor and subject crew since Jim Ryun in 1964. Knighton didn’t begin taking part in monitor and subject till his freshman 12 months at Hillsborough Excessive Faculty in Tampa, Fla., on the suggestion of his soccer coaches. However with some extra coaching and a well timed development spurt, he excelled on the monitor and determined to show professional simply earlier than his seventeenth birthday.
His resolution was not straightforward, although. As a gifted vast receiver, Knighton was a a lot sought-after four-star soccer recruit and had acquired school provides from Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, Florida and Tennessee. His expertise on the monitor, nevertheless, was plain as he broke Usain Bolt’s 2003 under-18 200m document with a time of 20.11 seconds at a meet in June.
Knighton beat world champion Noah Lyles within the 200m preliminary and semifinal heats on the Olympic trials and has a robust likelihood to medal in Tokyo.
Claire Curzan
The 16-year-old Claire Curzan can be one of many faces to look at within the ladies’s 100m butterfly occasion on Saturday, July 24. Curzan entered June’s Olympic swimming trials as one of many quickest 100m fly athletes on this planet with two world junior information.
The Cary, N.C., native trains underneath coach Bruce Marchionda as a part of the TAC Titans. Marchionda is greatest recognized for main Claire Donahue to a seventh-place end within the 100m fly 9 years in the past on the 2012 London Video games.
Curzan is at the moment fifth on this planet within the 100m butterfly after being on the surface wanting in to make the Olympic crew final 12 months. A bit over a full 12 months later, she can be able to compete for a medal with the perfect on this planet in Tokyo.
Katie Grimes
Katie Grimes, 16, can be one of many youngest members of the U.S. Olympic crew.
The swimming phenom completed second within the 800m freestyle, behind five-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky on the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials in June. Grimes is from the Sandpipers of Nevada swimming membership and can grow to be the youngest U.S. Olympic swimmer since Ledecky made her Olympic debut in 2012.
After their 800m race on the Olympic trials, Ledecky had excessive reward for her youthful up to date, calling Grimes “the future of swimming.”
Nevin Harrison
When the ladies’s dash canoe occasion makes its debut on the Tokyo Video games on Aug. 2, Nevin Harrison can be one of many youngest rivals. Harrison grew to become the primary American feminine dash canoe world champion at 17 years outdated in 2019.
Now 19, the Seattle native will try to duplicate that success on the Olympic stage. Harrison trains with the Gig Harbor Canoe and Kayak Racing Workforce and can look to win gold for the U.S. Olympic crew in a sport usually dominated by European nations.
Hend Zaza
Syria’s Hend Zaza made Olympic historical past when she misplaced to Austria’s Liu Jia within the opening spherical of the ladies’s single’s event on Saturday. Zaza, 12, is the youngest desk tennis athlete in Olympic historical past and the youngest athlete on the Tokyo Video games.
The 12-year-old prodigy began taking part in desk tennis on the age of 5 and certified for the Tokyo Video games final 12 months.
Zaza beat a girl greater than 30 years older than her on the Western Asia Olympic Qualification Event in 2019. She is the primary desk tennis athlete to symbolize Syria at an Olympic Video games.
The Olympic ladies’s singles event continued Sunday, July 25, with the gold medal match happening on July 30.
Sky Brown
British skateboarder Sky Brown can be simply 13 years and 22 days outdated when she makes her Olympic debut within the ladies’s park occasion on Aug. 3.
For these Olympians, athletic means is only one of their many abilities. Meet the multi-talented athletes with passions that stretch far past profitable the gold medal.
Sky is the third-ranked skateboarder on this planet and would be the youngest athlete to symbolize Britain within the Olympics since swimmer Margery Hinton competed within the 1928 Amsterdam Video games at 13 years and 44 days outdated.
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