Paris Olympics 2024: Meet India's Oldest And Youngest Athletes Participating In Marquee Event

Paris Olympics 2024: India has sent a formidable contingent of 117 members for the Paris Olympics 2024. They will aim to improve their previous record of winning seven medals at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago. The Indian contingent has a mixture of both young and experienced athletes in almost all the sports.

India's star tennis player Rohan Bopanna, is one of the oldest athlete at the age of 44 who will be going to Paris. And Dhinidhi Desinghu will be the youngest athlete at the age of 14 to participate at this multi-sport event.

Rohan Bopanna: India's oldest athlete at Paris Olympics

Bopanna will once again aim to win an Olympic medal in Paris. This would be his third Olympics. He had played with Mahesh Bhupathi in the 2012 Olympics, where they qualified for the second round of the men's doubles event.

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Then in 2016, he paired with Leander Paes for the same event but crashed out from the first round itself. But in the mixed doubles round, both him and his partner Sania Mirza inched closer towards winning a medal. But unfortunately they lost the bronze medal match to Czech Republic's Lucie Hradecka and Radek Stepaneck in straight sets.

Although he failed to qualify for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Bopanna, who has aged like a fine wine, qualified for the Paris Olympics due to his World No.4 rankings. This time he would be playing with World No. 62 N Sriram Balaji. He is entering this multi-sport event after a brilliant run on the tour. He also had become the oldest World No.1 this year and also the oldest man to have won a Grand Slam along with his Australian partner Matthew Ebden as they had won the men's doubles Australian Open title earlier this year. They also played in the semifinals of French Open 2024.

Bopanna and Balaji's first stint as a pair this year didn't go as per plans as they crashed out in the first round of Hamburg Open.

Dhinidhi Desinghu: India's youngest at Paris Games

Bengaluru's 14-year old swimmer Dhinidhi Desinghu will be scripting history as she will be India's youngest athlete at the upcoming games. She qualified on the basis of universality quota given by the Olympic games Tripartite commission, along with swimmer Srihari Nataraj.

Desinghu will be participating in the women's 200m freestyle event and is the second youngest Indian Olympian as Aarti Saha held the record for being the youngest as she was just 11 years old when she participated in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. She is currently in ninth grade and has already showed grit and dedication for this sport.

This won't be her first major tournament as she was also seen in action in the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou and the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha.