Tokyo 2020’s golden oldies could see a new oldest Olympian

Age ain’t nothing but a number, they say, and some of the athletes in Olympics past would certainly agree.

The oldest ever Olympian ever was John Copley. who competed in the 1948 Olympics aged 73. However, that was in the Mixed Painting, Engravings, and Etchings art competition, which is no longer recognised as a sport.

Only a touch younger – and considered the oldest Olympian – was oldest medallist Oscar Swahn who won silver for Sweden in the Running Deer shooting event at the 1920 Olympics at 72 years and 280 days. Swahn is also the oldest gold medallist, winning in the same event at his home Olympics in 1912, aged 64 years and 258 days. Swahn also qualified for 1924 but did not compete after falling ill.

Remarkably, his record could be broken in Tokyo this summer.

It has has been a close call in recent years. Canadian equestrian rider Ian Millar made it to 10 Summer Games in a row up to London 2012 and would have made Rio too, but for a sick horse. The man known as “Captain Canada” will not compete in Tokyo aged 73 as he called time on his career last year, but his daughter Amy might ensure the name lives on. She made her first Olympics in Rio four years ago and could compete this summer aged 43.

The oldest Olympian in Rio was another equestrian rider. New Zealand’s Julie Brougham was 62, but she will not ride in Tokyo after only just returning to competition after a year battling cancer. We might yet see Canada’s Lesley Thompson-Willie in action. The rowing coxswain was 56 at the Rio Games and is looking to qualify for a ninth Olympics – and after a change in the rules she will be coxing for the men rather than the women as the 60-year-old looks to make Tokyo.

That is nothing compared with Japan’s Hiroshi Hoketsu. The veteran dressage rider competed in his first Olympics in Tokyo in 1964. He qualified for the Seoul OIympics in 1988 but his horse was quarantined and he made his Olympic return in 2008 – 44 years after his first Games. He was the oldest athlete in Beijing and at London four years later and would have been in Rio but for his horse falling ill.

Hoketsu is reported to be considering competing in his second Tokyo Games and if he does he will become the oldest Olympian at 79.

That would be a remarkable achievement and fitting for an Olympics hosted in a country with one of the highest life expectancies.

There are others, who, while younger than Hoketsu, are every bit as impressive. Luxembourg’s China-born table tennis star Ni Xialian has qualified for Tokyo. The 55-year-old won bronze at the European Games in Minsk last year. It will be a welcome return to Tokyo for the paddler.

She won the first world championship in the Japanese capital in 1983 when she was still competing for China. This will be a fifth Olympics for Ni, who made her Olympic debut for Luxembourg at Sydney in 2000. She has been at every Games since Beijing in 2008.

Equally impressive is Oksana Chusovitina, who has qualified for Tokyo to make her eighth Games. Most startlingly, she has done it in gymnastics, perhaps the event least suited to the passing of time. The 44-year-old started her career competing for the Soviet Union and competed in her first Olympics in Barcelona in 1992 as a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) team. She won gold, of course.

Tiger Woods, who is being tipped to compete in the golf, is 45 and there are a number of senior pros, such as Roger Federer, who are approaching 40 but expected to be among the medals if they compete. Veterans such as three-time Olympic beach volleyball champion Kerri Walsh Jennings have passed that mark. The US star will turn 42 the week after the Tokyo Games. She’s looking to avenge her bronze in Rio and is gunning for gold.

These age-defying athletes might warrant an addition to the Olympic motto. “Faster. Higher. Stronger. Older” has a ring to it.