Who was the oldest athlete at Tokyo Olympics? 

Mary Hanna of Australia was the oldest participant in the Tokyo Olympics 2020. Taking part in her sixth Olympic Games, she was part of the equestrian team in the quadrennial event three years ago. She was the first female athlete from her country to be selected for six Olympics in a row after first taking part in the 1996 edition in Atlanta.

The 66-year-old also became the second-oldest female Olympian after Lorna Johnstone, who took part in equestrian in the 1972 Olympics in Germany. In the qualifiers, she finished 13th and showed that she was ready for another crack in the showpiece event. Hanna was a grandmother of four but did not let her passion of riding horses die down.

In Tokyo, she came 40th in the individual competition. The names of all her horses in the Olympics are Mosaic (1996), Limbo (Athens and Sydney), Sancette (2012), Boogie Woogie (Rio) and Calanta (Tokyo). During the Rio Olympics, she also surpassed Bill Roycroft to become the oldest Australian to take part in the mega event.

“I do not think about my age because there’s a lot of older people riding and doing really well. Nobody in horse sport ever mentions my age, it’s only when I get out of horse sport that people mention it and I think it’s a bit odd” Hanna said in an interview.

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Mary Hanna’s career apart from Olympics

Back in 2011, she secured the third position in the CD13 Grand Prix in France. The very next year, she finished in seventh spot in the CD13 Grand Prix in France. During the same tournament in 2012, she held the 12th position in Hamburg, Germany.

In the final of the Dressage event at the FEI World Cup in 2014, Hanna finished 15th. Two years later in 2016, Hanna again made her way into a World Cup where she grabbed the 15th position at Gothenburg in Sweden.

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