Heili Sirviö becomes youngest Finnish Olympic athlete ever at Paris Olympics

Heili Sirviö has made history by becoming the youngest Finnish Olympic athlete ever at the Paris Olympics. This achievement is unique to skateboarding, as other sports impose age limits barring young teens from participating. Young Finnish figure skaters Annika Pellonmaa and Venla Sinisalo, along with gymnast Katja Podobed, exemplify talents who must wait due to such age restrictions to compete at adult championships.

In skateboarding, the absence of age limits reflects the sport’s youthful ethos, unlike figure skating and gymnastics, which implement age constraints to protect young athletes from public pressure. Many Olympic sports require participants to be at least 15 years old, making it challenging for those under this age, like a 13-year-old shot putter or triathlete, to join adult Olympic teams.

Certain sports allow for early teen success, as seen in figure skating and gymnastics, where youthful physiques provide competitive advantages. In figure skating, complex jumps and spins are easier for younger bodies that have yet to develop adult proportions. Meanwhile, the International Skating Union has raised the competition age from 15 to 16 in 2022 and plans to increase it to 17 in 2024, aiming to mitigate pressures highlighted by the doping case of 15-year-old Russian skater Kamila Valieva.

Podobed, who is 15, shines as a rising star in gymnastics and is expected to join the adult national team next year, while Pellonmaa and Sinisalo will have to wait until at least 2027 to compete in adult-level figure skating competitions. The gymnastics federation supports raising the minimum age for competitions to 18 to ensure adult athletes are the ones contesting at the highest level.