Syrian girl, 11, qualifies for Olympic table tennis

WASHINGTON Last summer, Ni Xia Lian qualified for the Olympic table tennis competition by finishing third at the European championships. By the time this year’s Summer Games in Tokyo roll around, the China-born woman who now represents Luxembourg will be 57 years old, the oldest person ever to compete in table tennis at the Olympics.

And if the fates allow, Ni could be matched up against her polar opposite in Syria’s Hend Zaza, who qualified for the Olympics by winning last week’s West Asia Olympic qualification tournament in Jordan. Hend, you see, is 11 years old. Born Jan. 1, 2009, according to the International Table Tennis Federation, Hend beat Lebanon’s Mariana Sahakian in the women’s final to qualify for Tokyo, even though Sahakian is 31 years older.

Olympic table tennis has no age floor or ceiling, and the West Asia qualifying tournament also featured two 14-year-olds and a 19-year-old. The Olympics themselves have seen a number of young players compete, including American Ariel Hsing, who was 16 when she advanced to the round of 32 at the 2012 London Games. Her final victory in the tournament came against Ni, who was 49 at the time.

Hend is likely to be the youngest Olympian at this year’s games, narrowly beating out British skateboarder Sky Brown, who is about five months older.

There have been few Olympic athletes younger than Hend. In 1896, a Greek gymnast named Dimitrios Loundras was 10 when he won bronze in a team gymnastics event, and 11-year-old Luigina Giavotti competed for Italy in gymnastics at the 1928 Games.

Four years ago in Rio, Nepalese swimmer Gaurika Singh was the youngest athlete at 13.