by The rise and rise of 16-year-old Luke Littler at the PDC world championship in London will be one of the sporting stories of the year. He may already be a good bet to lift the BBC sports personality of the year award in December. As a teenage sports sensation, he is in elevated company.
Pele
Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé, scored in every knockout round as Brazil won their first men’s football World Cup in Sweden in 1958. Then aged 17, Pelé went on to become a player independent in its era and a cornerstone of Brazilian sides. who also won the trophy in 1962 and 1970. His joyous and fearless approach to the game was matched by a delightful personality off the pitch and in 2000 he was jointly awarded the Fifa player of the century with Argentina’s Diego Maradona.
Nadia Comăneci
Related: 50 fantastic Olympic minutes: Nadia Comaneci’s perfect 10s – in pictures
Romania’s Nadia Comăneci became a household name after sweeping the Montreal Olympics at 14 with a perfect score of 10 on the uneven bars and balance beam. It was the first time anyone had achieved it and the organizers in 1976 couldn’t even display their score properly – the feat was so incredible the scoreboard never went up to double figures. Comăneci took home three individual golds, an individual bronze and a team silver in her first Olympic appearance and added two more golds in Moscow in 1980.
Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson’s personality out of the ring and his later conviction for rape made him a completely different sports personality from many of those on this list who are hailed as heroes, but he undoubtedly influenced his sport as a young fighter. In November 1986, less than two years after his first professional fight, Tyson was crowned WBC heavyweight champion of the world, the youngest ever to win a title bout at 20 years and four months.
Tiger Woods
Like Tyson, Tiger Woods did not reach the peak of his sport as a teenager, but he was well on his way. He turned professional at the age of 20 in 1996 and by the end of the following April had become the youngest person to win the US Masters, just beating Jordan Spieth who won the title in 2015 when he was 21, just a little. older than Woods was.
Abhimanyu Mishra
No discussion of darts is complete until someone has satisfied “but is it sport?” and the same can be said of chess, where stars have historically been younger than Littler. Bobby Fischer won his first US open chess championship at 14 and in 2021 Abhimanyu Mishra became the youngest ever chess grandmaster at 12 years and four months.
Ronnie O’Sullivan
Snooker is also a sport of brains and precision and Ronnie O’Sullivan has been at the top for many years, having broken through with his first competitive break of 147 at the 1991 English amateur championships when he was 15. a candle at both ends, because when he won the 2023 UK championship at 47 years and 363 days – his eighth title – he set a new record as the oldest ever winner.
Boris Becker and Martina Hingis
Between 1976 and 1984 only Björn Borg, Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe won the men’s singles at Wimbledon. In 1985 Boris Becker not only threw down the established order, he did so as the first unseeded player to win the title, and the youngest, at the age of 17.
Ten years later it was Martina Hingis who shook the world of tennis. At 15 years and 9 months, her doubles win with Helena Suková at Wimbledon in 1996 made her the youngest ever winner of a grand slam title and by the following year she was the youngest woman ever to become the first player in the world.
Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney
The England men’s football team enjoyed two teenage goalscoring breakthroughs in quick succession, with Michael Owen emerging as an 18-year-old star at the 1998 World Cup finals with a stunning solo goal in England’s victory over the Argentina, and Wayne of similar age. Rooney emerging as England’s most potent goal threat as they approach the quarter-finals of Euro 2004. That fat is a long way from his career today, where Owen is known primarily for his a little dour approach in football matters and lack of interest in football. films, although Rooney is nursing his balls after being sidelined this week following a disastrous spell in charge of Birmingham City as manager.
Emma Radhunchback
Another potential cautionary tale for Littler is Emma Raducanu. The 18-year-old British tennis player became the first qualifier, male or female, to win a grand slam singles title with a stunning back-to-back victory at the US Open in 2021. She was unable to replicate that feat . bottle minute and runs deep into other competitions however, and since then he has been plagued by injuries and the loudmouthed criticism of the likes of Piers Morgan. Raducanu is now preparing for the Australian Open after eight months out.
Katie Ledecky
Perhaps a better career path for Littler to focus on than Radacanu or Rooney is Katie Ledecky. She stunned the world at the age of 15 when she won the 800 meter freestyle swimming gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics, narrowly missing a world record in the process. Ledecky has won six more Olympic gold medals and 21 world championship gold medals. No female swimmer has won more. As Littler looks to dominate a sport where you can play at the highest level into your 50s, he may hold more world titles than any other sports figure in history.
