How young is too young as child prodigies win big at Asian Games

NAGOYA – The Asian Games have crowned teenage champions before, but this edition has witnessed stunning successes by child prodigies, culminating in Yuki Kurihara standing atop the podium aged just 11.

The Japanese primary school pupil demolished opponents three times his age on the way to a historic gold in e-sports in Aichi-Nagoya.

He is the country’s youngest Asiad champion and almost certainly the youngest the Games have ever seen.

Kurihara did not even react after winning the Sept 26 final in Puyo Puyo Champions, a puzzle game where players try to clear their screen of coloured blobs by lining them up and popping them.

The boy, who does not turn 12 until June 2027 and wants to be a train driver when he grows up, later explained that he felt “embarrassed” in his 10-2 win over 24-year-old South Korean Kang Dong-shin.

Kurihara’s face was splashed across national newspapers on Sept 27.

There is no publicly available official list of the youngest medallists ever at the Games, which were first contested in 1951.

But the introduction in recent editions of events intended to attract younger viewers has resulted in some eye-catching displays by children.

In skateboarding, Chinese Taipei’s 12-year-old Ku Yong-yan took home silver on Sept 25 in the “men’s” park final.

The winner, Japan’s Izuru Nagahara, was a relative veteran at 15.

Ku had anaesthetic injections in his knee to dull the pain from injury before his winning run.

Also in the skateboarding was Mazel Paris of the Philippines, who was just nine when she competed at the previous Asian Games.

Asked what has changed since Hangzhou in 2023, the 12-year-old replied: “I got taller for sure.”

This week will see another teenage phenomenon enter the fray with India’s 15-year-old cricketer Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.

Abuse concerns

But the presence of young children competing on the international stage against adults and under expectations to win for their countries comes with a caveat.

Kanae Doi, Japan director at Human Rights Watch, said ahead of the Games that “moments of triumph do not come easily. They are built on years of disciplined training, often beginning in childhood”.

“At its best, that journey should provide children with the joy of play and competition, along with opportunities for physical, mental and personal growth,” she wrote in the Japan Times.

“Many young athletes instead encounter physical, verbal and even sexual abuse in the very environments meant to help them develop.”

She said that in Games host Japan, children “frequently experience abuse in sports training within Japanese schools, federations and elite sports programmes”.

In 2024, the International Olympic Committee released its consensus statement on youth athletes at the Olympic Games.

It noted that 50 per cent of common mental health conditions first emerge before 18.

Adolescent athletes are also more susceptible to certain injuries, it said.

Chinese swimmer Yu Zidi became the youngest medallist in world championships history in Singapore in July 2025 with bronze at age 12.

Now a teenager and hotly tipped to make a splash at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, she is one of the faces of the Nagoya Games with three golds, all in record times.

But when it came to reporters swarming around her after races, she looked all of her 13 years.

“Interviews are way harder than the race,” she said.

Under pressure

Each sport has its own rules on minimum age.

For World Aquatics, the minimum age for major international championships is 14 but exceptions can be made for younger swimmers if, like Yu, they are fast enough.

She has spoken previously about struggling to balance her swimming with school work.

Yu’s teammate Zhang Yufei, 28, a multiple Olympic gold medallist and world champion, said the youngster’s stunning displays were no longer a shock.

But she cautioned: “I hope she can withstand that pressure.” AFP