A Brief History
On May 15, 2010, Australian 16 year old Jessica Watson completed a non-stop and solo unassisted sail voyage around the world, the youngest person to achieve this feat.
Digging Deeper
Watson piloted a 33.6 foot sailboat on her trip of seven months that covered nearly 20,000 nautical miles. She is just one of many people that achieved great feats before turning 18 years old, some of whom include:
American Marjorie Gestring became the youngest Olympic Gold Medalist in 1936 when she won the 3-meter diving event at the age of 13. Eight Olympic champions have been age 13 or 14!
American climber Jordan Romero is the youngest of 4 climbers under the age of 18 that have conquered Mt. Everest, which he did at age 13 in 1996.
Pakistani school girl Malala Yousafzai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 at the age of 17 for her fearless work advocating for women’s rights after being shot and nearly killed.
Note: Joe Nuxhall, before turning 16, became the youngest major league baseball player of all time in 1944, one of at least 10 players in the big leagues that debuted before turning 18.
Willie Johnston won the Medal of Honor at the age of 11 for bravery during the American Civil War in 1862, while Andrew Fitzgibbon won a Victoria Cross at the age of 15 in 1860 during the Second China War.
Question for students (and subscribers): What magnificent minor would you add to this list? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Gelman, Steve. Young Olympic Champions. Norton, 1964.
Watson, Jessica. True Spirit: The True Story of a 16-Year-Old Australian Who Sailed Solo, Nonstop, and Unassisted Around the World. Atria Books, 2010.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Saberwyn of Ella’s Pink Lady at the Australian National Maritime Museum, following the completion of her voyage, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
