The Oldest and Youngest Competitors at the Commonwealth Games
Here are some of the oldest and youngest athletes who have competed at the Commonwealth Games. These are the records that have been found by extensive online searches, though this list is not expected to be complete. There may be other athletes from earlier Games who may never be known as the records from the earliest editions in the 1930s are not complete
Oldest Gold Medallist
George Miller, 75 years and eight months old, is the oldest male competitor to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games when he won gold in lawn bowls for Scotland in 2022. Miller was director for visually impaired bowler Melanie Innes in B2/B3 the mixed pairs competition.
Just two days previously, his 72-year-old Scottish teammate Rosemary Lenton became the oldest female gold medallist. In her Games debut, she helped Scotland win the Para women's pairs bowls event in Birmingham, 2022.
Oldest Competitor
At 79 years and nine months, Robert Pitcairn is the oldest competitor in the history of the Games. He competed in full bore shooting events at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. The previous record was held by England's Doreen Flanders, who took part in lawn bowls at Glasgow 2014 a few weeks after her 79th birthday.
Youngest Gold Medallist
The youngest Commonwealth Games champion is Canadian diver Alexandre Despatie, who won the 10m platform in 1998, aged just 13 years 74 days.
Another very young gold medallist was the Australian swimmer Jenny Turrell, who was just 13 years, 8 months old when she won gold in the 400m freestyle at the 1974 Games in Christchurch.
"Indian boy is cleared", The Canberra Times, 16 Jul 1970, p.30 There may be a younger champion. Indian wrestler Ved Prakash won gold in the light-flyweight category in the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games in 1970. Initially, communications from India gave his age as 12, and there was discussion about whether he should be allowed to compete. Subsequently, a passport was produced that showed him as 14 years old, and he was allowed to compete, but it is believed that his true age was actually younger.
Youngest Medallist
In addition to the young gold medalists listed above, one of the youngest medallist may be Erraid Davies, a Scottish swimmer at the age of 13 years and 5 months won a bronze medal in the SB9 category for 100m breaststroke in 2014.
Youngest Competitor
The youngest person to compete at the Commonwealth Games was Anna Hursey, who was aged 11 when she represented Wales in doubles table tennis in 2018.
References
- THE COMPLETE BOOK OF THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES By GRAHAM GROOM
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