People talk a lot about the bittersweet feelings that surround age-related milestones like turning 30 or 40. But one milestone you don't hear so much about: when you realize you're older than all the Olympic athletes competing in your favorite sport. Did I really think I would one day qualify to join the ? No.
Did it still sting when I realized I may have officially aged out of even trying? Yes. But how old are Olympic athletes, actually? With the trials for the highly anticipated underway, you may have noticed some serious variation in the ages of the qualifying athletes. Ayumi Fukushima, a Japanese athlete who's expected to qualify to compete as a breakdancer, will be 41 years old during the Olympics.
Meanwhile, Jeff Dunne earned a place on the Australian breaking team at just 16. Believe it or not, there's no specific . Instead, age eligibility depends on each sports' international federation.
For example, diving has a minimum age requirement of 14 years old, while gymnastics requires artistic gymnasts to be at least 16 years old, and swimming, surfing, and skateboarding have no minimum age requirement. So while the age limitations for the Olympics aren't cut and dry, that leaves a mega-talented roster of athletes ranging from the teens to upper 40s. To give you a sense of the average age of an Olympic athlete, we broke down everything you need to know.
The data is limited, but an older published in the analyzed the ages of 3,548 athletes (across 44 sports) who delivered s.
