A Brief History
On July 7, 1985, Boris Becker of Germany became the youngest Wimbledon tennis champion by winning the tournament at the age of only 17. Becker went on to win at Wimbledon 2 more times, and he won a total of 9 of the “Grand Slam” tennis events, as well as earning an Olympic gold medal in 1992 (doubles).
Digging Deeper
Michael Chang bested Becker’s record as the youngest winner of a Grand Slam tennis event by taking the French Open title in 1989, also at age 17 but almost 4 months younger. Mats Wilander was also 17 when he won the French Open (Roland Garros Tournament) and Bjorn Borg was a mere 18 when he first won the French Open.
All of these fine male tennis players were old when they made their mark compared to Charlotte “Lottie” Dod who was only 15 when she won at Wimbledon in 1887!
Other young people have made their mark on sporting events at an extremely young age. The current “best basketball player in the world,” LeBron James, was only 18 years old when he first appeared in an NBA game, and completed that season as the Rookie of the Year winner at age 19. Along the way he became the youngest NBA player to score 40 or more points in a game. Another young basketball phenom was Kobe Bryant, only 17 when he graduated from high school and was drafted to play in the NBA. He became the youngest player to reach 30,000 career points.
Of course when you think of young champions, the name Eldrick “Tiger” Woods comes to mind. He was only 21 years old when he won his first major tournament, The Masters, becoming the youngest winner in tournament history. Of the 4 PGA golfers to win a tournament at age 19, the most recent was Jordan Spieth who won the 2013 John Deere Classic. In the LPGA (women’s golf) there have been a whopping 15 young ladies that have won a tournament at less than 19 years old, with Lydia Ko being the youngest at 15 years old when she won the Canadian Open in 2012.
Baseball great Bob Feller pitched for the Cleveland Indians when he was still 17 years old and went on to be one of the greatest pitchers of all time, and yet he was almost old compared to Joe Nuxhall who pitched in the major leagues starting at age 15! (Nuxhall was also pretty good, having a 22 year career.)
Teenagers have also won Olympic Gold Medals, especially in swimming, skating (13 year old Kim Yoon-Mi!) and gymnastics, but also in other events such as Bob Mathias, the 17 year old winner of the 1948 Olympic Decathlon, earning the title “World’s Greatest Athlete.” Divers Marjorie Gestring Fu Mingxia and both won their Gold Medals at age 13.
Young people can be remarkably good at a particular sport, and many have achieved great feats at a young age. Question for students (and subscribers): Which young athletes impress you the most? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
“Boris Becker.” Sports Illustrated, 15 July 1985.
