Zheng Haohao Becomes The Youngest Athlete At The 2024 Olympics

Zheng Haohao, became the youngest athlete at the 2024 Paris Olympics (Instagram/@lilibet_skate).

JAKARTA - skateboarder Zheng Haohao has officially become the youngest contestant at the 2024 Paris Olympics. In addition, he is also the youngest Chinese athlete to have competed in the Olympics.

Zheng came to Paris at the age of 11 and 11 months or just four years after he pursued the sport that managed to lead him to France.

"I feel really great when playing skateboards. I feel a littlejectissed," Zheng said, laughing in an interview with CCTV.

This sport began to be occupied by Zheng when he was seven years old. He began to explore his interest after receiving a skateboarder's birthday present.

Zheng initially trained at a local club before a team from Guangdong province recruited him two years later for his persistence and ability to focus on the competition.

In 2021, Zheng will also become the youngest athlete to compete in China's National Sports Festival. Then in 2023, he started competing globally in the world series and finally got a ticket to Paris while in Budapest.

The girl with a horsetail said that she came to Paris this year on the target of reaching a place in the last 16. He said winning is not as important as having fun.

"For me, competition is just a place to gather with my good friends. I know more than 10 of the world's 20 best skateboarders," he said.

Skateboard is the youngest sport at the Olympics. The sport first entered at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which was delayed by a year due to the corona pandemic.

Chinese authorities in 2022 added this increasingly popular sport to the national physical education curriculum for primary and junior high schools.

The Paris 2024 Olympics will officially open on Friday, July 26, 2024. The park skateboarding branch starts competing on August 6, 2024.