January 3, 2024
Updated 2 hours ago
image description,
Mike Tyson, Emma Raducanu and Simone Biles are among those who made a name for themselves as teenagers
Luke Littler captured the imagination of the sporting world with his dream run to the final of the PDC World Darts Championship at just 16 years old.
After some magical performances at this year's tournament at London's Alexandra Palace, the Warrington-based teenager unexpectedly entered the public consciousness.
Michael van Gerwen holds this record – at least for another year. The Dutchman was 24 years and nine months old when he won his first title in 2014, but Littler has time on his side.
Of course, there have been many teenagers who have become champions in their sport and ` Sport takes a look at some of their stories.
image source, Getty Images
image description,
17-year-old Pelé (left) scored six goals at the 1958 World Cup, including the winner against Wales in the quarter-finals
Pele, one of the greatest players in football history, was just 17 years old when he won the first of three World Cups with Brazil. The striker played a prominent role, scoring a hat-trick in the semi-final against France before scoring two more in a 5-2 win over Sweden in the final.
More recently, French star Kylian Mbappe became the second teenager to score in a World Cup final when he helped Didier Deschamps' side lift the trophy in 2018 at the age of 19.
Former England strikers Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney also had spectacular starts to their careers. Owen was 18 and had already won the Premier League Golden Boot when he scored his memorable solo goal against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup, while 16-year-old Rooney made his presence felt in the Premier League with a stunning winner for Everton against Arsenal 2002.
Emma Raducanu – Tennis
For a qualifier, winning a Grand Slam title is a major achievement. That makes it all the more remarkable to do this in her first year on the WTA Tour without losing a set, and at the age of 18 – but that's what Raducanu did when she won the 2021 US Open.
As the first British woman to win a Grand Slam since Virginia Wade in 1977, Raducanu added her name to a seemingly ever-growing list of teenage tennis prodigies.
At the age of 16, Martina Hingis secured the record as the youngest Grand Slam winner of all time when she won the Australian Open in 1997 and triumphed at Wimbledon and the US Open in the same year. Only a defeat in the French Open final prevented her from winning a Grand Slam title this year.
image source, Getty Images
image description,
The Swiss Martina Hingis won three of the four Grand Slam titles in 1997 at the age of 16
Michael Chang holds the men's record at 17 for his French Open win in 1989. Boris Becker was also 17 but about 117 days older than Chang when he won the first of his two Wimbledon titles as a teenager four years earlier.
Maria Sharapova was 17 when she won Wimbledon in 2004, Serena Williams won her first US Open title at 19, but all were relative veterans compared to Jennifer Capriati, who was only 14 when she reached the semifinals at Roland Garros in 1990 .
Simone Biles – Gymnastics
Biles was only 16 years old when she competed at the 2013 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp. Although the American only made her debut with the senior national team earlier this year, she won gold in the all-around, took first place in the floor exercise and silver in the vault.
Another eight world gold medals – and one silver – followed over the next two years before the just 19-year-old Biles won four Olympic gold medals at the 2016 Rio Games.
That's one more than Nadia Comaneci managed in Montreal in 1976 at age 14, but the Romanian became the first gymnast to achieve a perfect 10 at the Olympics, earning a total of seven that year.
Sachin Tendulkar – cricket
A record-breaking unbroken stand of 664 with Vinod Kambli in a school game brought Tendulkar to the attention of cricket fans across India in 1988 and later that year, at the age of 15, he became the youngest Indian to score on his first-class debut Century scored – 100 points for Bombay against Gujarat in the Ranji Trophy.
He made his Test debut for India in Pakistan the following year, scoring his first hundred in the format against England in the summer of 1990, when Tendulkar was just 17 years old.
Lydia Ko – Golf
image source, Getty Images
image description,
Lydia Ko was 17 when she became the youngest major champion in LPGA Tour history
In 2015, Ko rose to number one in the women's world golf rankings. At 17 years, nine months and nine days, the New Zealander became the youngest golfer, male or female, to top the professional golf rankings.
Later that year, Ko recorded the lowest final round score ever in a women's major championship, winning the Evan Championship and setting a new record as the youngest major champion in LPGA Tour history.
Tiger Woods was 21 when he became the youngest winner of the Masters at Augusta, but two years earlier, in 1995, he competed in the event for the first time and was the only amateur to do so.
Tom Daley – Diving
The diver became Britain's youngest male Olympian since 1960 when he competed in Beijing in 2008 aged 14, and a year later he became the country's first individual diving world champion when he won gold in the 10m in Rome. Daley took home a bronze medal at the same event in London 2012.
Katie Ledecky – Swimming
American swimmer Ledecky was 15 years old when she won the 800m freestyle at the 2012 Olympics in a national record time. Numerous world titles and world records followed before Ledecky won four more gold medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics, breaking her own world records in the 400m and 800m freestyle.
Ronnie O'Sullivan – Snooker
After winning the UK Championship in 2023, Ronnie O'Sullivan holds the record as the youngest and oldest winner of a major title.
O'Sullivan was 17 years and 358 days old when he won his first ranking title with a 10-6 victory over Stephen Hendry and won the 1993 UK Championship – he still holds the record as the youngest player to win a major title .
He is also the youngest player to win the Masters, snooker's most prestigious invitational tournament, which he first won in 1995 at the age of 19 years and 69 days.
Sky Brown – Skateboarding
image source, Getty Images
image description,
Sky Brown is Britain's youngest Olympic medalist, having won bronze in skateboarding at the age of 13
Brown made history as Britain's youngest Olympic medalist when she won bronze in skateboarding at the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics aged 13 years and 28 days.
At just 15, she also won the park event at the 2023 Skateboarding World Championships, becoming Britain's first female skateboarding world champion.
Mike Tyson – Boxing
While Tyson had to wait until he was 20 to win a world title, he was already dominating the heavyweight division before then. As a teenager, he competed in 23 professional fights, winning all but two by knockout or TKO.
Mia Brookes – snowboarding
Britain's Mia Brookes became the youngest world champion in snowboarding history by winning gold in women's slopestyle last February – a month after turning 16. It was Britain's first snowboard slopestyle world championship title.
Brookes also took World Cup silver in both slopestyle and big air in her first senior season and was named ` Young Sports Personality of the Year 2023.
Comments are closed.