I guess most of you reading this have memories of the 20th century but as we slip further into the current century we will eventually be replaced by those born after the millennium. On day 2 of the Pyeongchang Winter Games Redmond “Red” Gerard of the USA hastened this process by winning gold in the snowboard slopestyle for men and thus becoming the first Winter Olympic champion to have been born post 1999. Please note the careful choice of words there lest we get into the age-old argument of whether the current century began on January 1st, 2000 or January 1st, 2001. What is certain is that Gerard broke a host of age related records when he became Olympic champion.
Red Gerard
He became;
The youngest Olympic champion in snowboarding.
The youngest US Olympic Winter Games champion since 1928.
The first male Olympic champion to have been born in the 21st century.
The 3rd youngest Olympic Winter Games champion of all time (behind Billy Fiske (USA-1928-Bobsleigh) and Toni Nieminen (FIN-1988-Ski Jumping))
The list of Olympic champions born in the 2000s is as follows
[table]
Name,Sex,NOC,Sport,Year,DOB
Laurie Hernandez,F,USA,GYM,2016, 9 June 2000
Penny Olesniak,F,CAN,GYM,2016, 13 June 2000
Red Gerard,M, USA,SNB,2018, 29 June 2000
Ren Qian,F, CHN,DIV,2016, 20 February 2001
[/table]
For the record the first Winter Olympians born post 1999 were male ski jumpers in Pyeongchang.
In start order of the normal hill event they were;
[table]
Start order,Name,NOC,DOB
7th,Kevin Maltsev,EST,4 July 2000
18th,Jonathan Learoyd,FRA,3 November 2000
36th,Timi Zajc,SLO,26 April 2000
[/table]
Kevin Maltsev
And finally the youngest Olympic snowboard champions are as follows;
[table]
Name,Sex,NOC,Event,Year,Age
Red Gerard,M,USA,Slopestyle,2018, 17y 227d
Kelly Clark,F,USA,Halfpipe,2002, 18y 199d
Hannah Teter,F,USA,Halfpipe,2006, 19y 17d
Shaun White,M,USA,Halfpipe,2006, 19y 162d
Karine Ruby,M,FRA,Giant Slalom,1998, 20y 36d
[/table]
A comprehensive list of Olympic champions born in the 21st century will be available on this blog in around 150 years providing the technology of keeping brains alive in jars proves successful.