What the exact age limit is to compete in Olympics after viewers disbelief at athlete's 'criminal' birth date
Rhianna Benson
Featured Image Credit: CGTN Sports scene/Olympics
As the youngest Olympian this year, Chinese skateboarding athlete Zheng Haohao has been turning heads since she landed a 540 spin at the Budapest Olympic Qualifier Series in Hungary.
As well as being left wowed by the youngster's staggering sporting antics, however, the rising star has also left a batch of spectators puzzled about one thing in particular - her age.
In fact, after learning of the Olympic athlete's birthday, some fans went as far as to brand the decision to allow Zheng to take part as 'criminal'.
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For those unfamiliar with the skateboarder's impressive backstory, she started her sporting journey at seven-years-old and has been a professional in the industry for the last two years.
That said, however, the reason people are so up in arms about her birth date is that as it happens, she was born during a previous Olympic game in London.
The 2012 London Olympics, to be precise.
The 11-year-old is just two weeks away from her 12th birthday on 12 August, and this revelation is making people question their age online.
One person wrote: “I've been playing minecraft longer than she's been alive, now I feel old."
Another said: “I don’t understand 2012 was two years ago,” while someone else wrote: “Gen alpha tony hawk.”
It turns out, however, that there's actually no age limit for participating in the Olympic Games but rather it is down to the rules set by the International Sport's Federation for each sport, according to the International Olympic Committee.
As such, the athlete is in it to win.
Posting to the Chinese social media site, Weibo, she wrote: “I don’t want to put any pressure on myself. I just want to show my best in Paris.”
She added: “I want to tell the world that, even though I am young, I can skate well. I want to fulfil the dreams many adults have.”
Having played in the World Championships in 2023, she made her debut and finished 23rd in the competition.
She explained the reason she began skating to Xinhua during an interview: “I started skateboarding just to make new friends and have fun.”
In another interview with China Daily, she shared that skateboarding wasn’t her favourite sport initially, and that it was rollerskating before she made the switch.
She said: “Since I was introduced to skateboarding, [roller skating] dropped to second place.”
Luckily, she knew which sport would be her destiny.
However, it wasn’t a fluke- she looks up to a lot of skateboarders who inspire her to be the best she can be.
Before the games, she said: “I’m a fan of skaters like Sky Brown from Great Britain, Hiraki Kokona from Japan and Arisa Trew from Australia.
"They really have a lot of style and are some of the best skaters in the world.”