Who was the youngest athlete at Tokyo Olympics? 

Syria’s Hend Zaza was the youngest participant in the Tokyo Olympics three years ago. On July 24, she made her debut at the age of 12 years and 204 days and became the youngest table tennis player in the history of the Olympics. She also became the youngest in 29 years to take part in the quadrennial event after 12-year-old Judit Kiss and 11-year-old Carlos Front played at the 1992 Olympics.

Apart from that, Zaza was the youngest table tennis player in the history of the Olympics. Moreover, she was Syria’s flagbearer in the opening ceremony. Had the showpiece in Tokyo not been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Zaza would have forayed into the Olympics at 11.

She also became the second table tennis player from Syria to take part in the showpiece event. Heba Allejji was the first from Syria to play the sport in the Olympics when she played at Rio 2016.

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How did Hend Zaza perform in the Tokyo Olympics?

Zaza did not have the best of outings after exiting the Olympics following her 4-0 defeat to Liu Jia of Australia. She lost the preliminary round match 4-11, 9-11, 3-11, 5-11. The Syrian fought hard in the second game, taking a 6-2, but her Austrian opponent stormed back.

There was a huge gap in experience between the two players. Jia, who played in her sixth Olympics, won the European title in 2005 when Zaza was yet to be born.

“Reaching the Tokyo Olympics was already an achievement, I wasn’t asked to win, I was asked to play. I think I had a good performance and I learned from the loss,” Zaza had told Olympic.com.

While Zaza is amongst the youngest Olympians, the record has stayed with Greece’s Dimitrios Loundras, who played as a 10-year-old in Athens in 1896.

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