History was made on Tuesday when an 11-year-old figure skater made her Olympic debut, becoming the youngest athlete at the Paris Games.
China’s Haohao also became her country’s youngest Olympian when she won the title in the women’s park preliminaries.
In the first round of qualifying, the youngster fell short of qualifying for the final after losing two of her three sets, and the top eight scorers advanced.
Haohao, from Huizhou, was born after the London Games and made a breakthrough in the Olympic Qualifying Series in Shanghai and Budapest to rise to No. 26 in the world rankings and seal his place in Paris.
It is a remarkable achievement for the Chinese skating prodigy, with 16-year-old Sky Brown from the British team competing in the later preliminaries alongside 11 other medal hopefuls.
Chinese skateboarding star Zheng Haohao, 11, became the youngest Olympian at the Paris Games
The 11-year-old girl (right) was born after the London Games and competed in the park preliminaries.
Haohao becomes the youngest person to compete for the Republic of China
The rising Chinese star ran a respectable race but fell short in qualifying for the final.
Brown also made headlines in Tokyo three years ago when she became Britain’s youngest ever medallist by taking bronze aged 13 years and 28 days.
Brown suffered a dislocated shoulder earlier this week but recovered in time to compete in the final round of the preliminaries.
The dislocation occurred on Sunday, just before leaving for Paris.
Brown had to recover from a knee injury before competing after tearing the medial collateral ligament in his knee while filming a movie in April.
Another young Team GB star, 16-year-old Lola Tambling, also competed with Brown during their preliminary round.
While Haohao’s rise has naturally caught the attention of fans, it also means there is a whopping 40-year age gap between her and the oldest skater at the Games, Team GB’s Andy Macdonald, aged 51.
Haohao finished 10th out of 12 skaters in the preliminaries, scoring 63.19 in her first run before two falls in her second and third runs saw her post scores of 16.01 and 16.07 respectively, with her best score being taken as her final classification.
The youngster has been skating professionally for the past two years before her Games debut.
Before the Games, Haohao’s coach Danny Wainwright praised the Chinese skating prodigy, who turns 12 on Aug. 12.
“He’s done very well and worked hard,” Wainwright said. Olympic Games.com.
‘She finished 43rd, then 20th, and the next competition she finished 21st, so she did really well.’
In just four years since he was gifted a skateboard, Haohao has made a huge rise from national to international competition.
Ahead of his Games debut, Haohao, who has only skated professionally for the past two years, revealed that his reason for taking up skateboarding was to “make new friends and have fun.”
But he insisted he is competing to win in Paris.
In a message posted on Chinese social media site Weibo, the youngster said: “I don’t want to put pressure on myself. I just want to show my best in Paris.”
Haohao is competing alongside Team GB’s rising star, 16-year-old Sky Brown, who won bronze in Tokyo.
The 16-year-old recently dislocated her shoulder, but recovered just in time for the preliminaries.
Brown is ranked fourth in the world and has shown resilience in returning from a knee injury.
There is a 40-year age gap between Haohao and Team GB star Andy Macdonald, 51, left, who is pictured here alongside skateboarding legend Tony Hawk.
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She added: “I want to tell the world that even though I’m young, I can skate well. I want to fulfil the dreams that many adults have.”
At 11, Haohao is surprisingly not the youngest Olympian of all time.
This award goes to Greek gymnast Dimitros Loundras, who competed in the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens at just 10 years old.
