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Meet The Oldest Olympians Competing At The Tokyo Games

This article is more than 2 years old.
Updated Jul 27, 2021, 04:33pm EDT

Topline

While teenagers have been racking up medals in sports like skateboarding and gymnastics at this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, some of the Olympians competing have age and experience on their side, having represented their country at the Games for decades.

Key Facts

The oldest athlete competing at the Tokyo Games is 66-year-old Australian equestrian Mary Hanna, who is representing her country at the Olympics for the sixth time.

She’s joined by fellow Australian equestrian Andrew Hoy, who at 62 is the oldest male Olympian in Australian history, and has competed for the country in a record eight Games.

In women’s gymnastics, a sport dominated by teenagers, Uzbekistan’s 46-year-old Oksana Chusovitina made history this week when she became the oldest woman to ever compete Olympic gymnastics—a longtime favorite of fans and fellow gymnasts with plans to retire after this summer’s Games, Chusovitina received a standing ovation after failing to qualify for the vault finals over the weekend.

Santiago Raul Lange, a 59-year-old sailor from Argentina, is competing in his sixth Games in Tokyo, despite losing 80% of one of his lungs in a 2015 battle with lung cancer, after which he went on to win a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Games.

The 52-year-old shooter Nino Salukvadze competed at her first of nine Olympics in the Seoul Games in 1988 under the Soviet Union—since its disintegration in 1991, she’s represented Georgia, and at the 2016 Rio Games had the unique opportunity to compete in the same Games as her son, Tsotne Machavariani, also a shooter.

Big Number

54 years. That’s the age difference between 66-year-old Hanna, the Games’ oldest competitor, and 12-year-old Syrian table tennis prodigy Hend Zaza, the youngest.

Surprising Fact

The oldest athlete in modern Olympic history was Oscar Swan, a Swedish shooter who was 72 years old when he won a silver medal at the 1920 Games in Antwerp.

Key Background

There is no universal minimum age for Olympians set by the International Olympic Committee, but some individual sports have eligibility limits. Gymnasts, for example, must be 16 years old to compete at the Games, while boxers must have turned 18 but be no older than 40. 

Further Reading

Meet The Youngest Olympians Competing At The Tokyo Games (Forbes)

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