11-year-old Syrian table tennis player to be the youngest Olympian
People are getting excited about her because she could be the youngest athlete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. The 11-year-old table tennis star has qualified after winning the West Asia Olympic Qualification Tournament in Jordan, beating a 42-year-old adult! And table tennis sounds like a great sport for young wannabe Olympians - also competing were two 14-year-olds and a 19-year old. More about the 2020 Tokyo Oympics It looks like Hend Zaza will beat 11-year-old UK skateboarder Sky Brown for the title of youngest Olympian at the Tokyo 2020 Games, because Sky will have turned 12 by the time they start. The youngest recorded Olympic competitor is believed to be Greek gymnast Dimitrios Loundras who took part in the first modern Games in Athens in 1896, aged 10 years and 218 days. So Hend Zaza, who was born in 2009, will be one of the youngest Olympians EVER. No other Syrian has competed at an Olympics in table tennis - a sport which doesn't have a minimum age. The Olympic women's singles tournament begins at the end of July 2020. To enjoy the CBBC Newsround website at its best you will need to have JavaScript turned on. WATCH: Master skateboarding tricks with Team GB's Sky BrownFacts about the Tokyo Olympics Tokyo 2020 is officially known as the Games of the XXXII Olympiad It'll be Tokyo's second Olympic Games - the first one was in 1964 The Games start on Friday 24 July The Paralympics follow in August There are 206 states eligible to take part in the 2020 Olympics The official mascot is Miraitowa. It looks like a robot-cat superhero and gets its name from the words "mirai" (meaning future) and "towa" (meaning eternity)
