Paris Olympics 2024: The 33rd Summer Games return to the French capital, the City of Lights, after a gap of 100 long years. Paris becomes only the second city after London to host the Olympics three times (1900, 1924 and 2024). Prior to this, London was the only city to host the Olympics three times in 1908, 1948 and 2012. India with 117 athletes are sending their biggest ever contingent to the Paris Olympics and here are two of them who are the youngest and the oldest.
Rohan Bopanna: The Oldest Athlete In The Indian Contingency
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India’s most seasoned athlete and the man who has made the country proud on many occasions, Bopanna is the oldest Paris bound Indian athlete. Bopanna, the current Australian Open men’s double champion will team up with N Sriram Balaji. Interestingly Bopanna is not only the second oldest Tennis player to qualify for the 33rd Summer Games, but is also the oldest player to achieve number 1 rankings in the doubles.
The seasoned Indian athlete, along with his teammate N Sriram Balaji will kickstart the Paris Olympics against France’s team including the likes of Fabien Reboul and Edouard Roger-Vasselin. Bopanna and Balaji can then go on and face second-seeded German pair of Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz in the second round. This is Rohan Bopanna’s third appearance in the Olympics and his best result was fourth-place finish at Rio Games in 2016.
Dhinidhi Desinghu: The Youngest Athlete In The Indian Contingency
The youngest athlete of the Indian contingency, 14-years-old swimmer Dhinidhi Desinghu hails from Bangalore. The Indian swimmer faced speech till the time she turned three and had been very shy to approach others. This was one of the reasons why she took up sports and swimming was a very obvious choice as she had a pool next to her home.
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Desinghu qualified for the 200m freestyle on universality quota and will compete along with her Indian counterpart Srihari Nataraj. Things turned around for Desinghu in a state-level open meet in Mangalore. The Indian youngster has won seven National Games gold medals so far and also the national record in women’s 200m freestyle.
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