11-year-old Chinese girl vies to win a medal in skateboarding

China's national skateboarding athlete, Zheng Haohao, is the youngest athlete participating in the Paris Olympics at 11 years and 11 months old.

Zheng, who began skateboarding at age 7, emerged as a prodigy by winning a national skateboarding competition at age 10. China's leading search engine, Baidu, lists Zheng Haohao as an ethnic Korean.

Skateboarding, which became an official sport at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, is mainly played by teenage athletes. The youngest participants in this competition, second-place Fay Ebert (14 years and eight months old, Canada) and third-place Sky Brown (16 years old, England), are also skateboarders.

If Zheng Haohao wins, she will become the youngest Olympic gold medalist in history. The current record is held by Marjorie Gestring (USA), who won the 3-meter springboard diving event at the 1936 Berlin Olympics at 13 years and nine months old.


Yun-Cheol Jeong trigger@donga.com