Exceptional talents in sports
Sports Prodigies: Littler’s predecessors
So far, Darja Varfolomeev has won six World Cup gold medals, four World Championship silver medals and one World Championship bronze medal. photo
© Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa
Darts teenager Luke Littler is in the World Cup final at the age of 16. He is considered a child prodigy. There were and are exceptional talents in other sports too.
Boris Becker
In 1985, Becker sparked a tennis hype in Germany when, at just 17 years and 227 days, he became the youngest player in history and the first German to win the traditional Wimbledon tournament. Becker becomes a German sports star. He won five more Grand Slam titles, including two more in his “living room” Wimbledon. In addition, there was Olympic gold in doubles with Michael Stich in 1992. In total he won 49 singles tournament victories and 15 doubles titles. He led the world rankings for twelve weeks.
Steffi Graf
Graf is considered a talent of the century and child prodigy. In 1982, as a 13-year-old, she won the German youth championship for 18-year-olds. At thirteen years and four months she was registered as a professional player with the WTA. On June 6, 1987, she won her first Grand Slam title at the French Open and became a superstar in the coming years. Having won 22 Grand Slam tournaments and spending 377 weeks at the top of the world rankings, she is one of the most successful tennis players ever. In 1988 she won all four Grand Slam tournaments and the Olympic Games and was the only one to win the Golden Slam in tennis. In total, Graf won 107 tournaments.
Franziska van Almsick
The Berliner conquered the swimming world at the age of just 14 when she won silver in the 200 meter freestyle in Barcelona in 1992, the first of a total of ten Olympic medals (four silver, six bronze). She became the first all-German sports star after reunification. In the 1993 season she won European Championship gold six times and was named World Athlete of the Year. At the 19994 World Championships in Rome, she missed the final in her flagship discipline of the 200 meter freestyle in ninth place in the semi-finals. Her qualified teammate Dagmar Hase did not compete – van Almsick started for her and became world champion with a world record. She was denied the crown as Olympic champion, but with a total of 37 medals at major events, she is one of the best in her sport.
Darya Varfolomeev
The rhythmic gymnast (17) wrote German sports history at the World Cup last August. She celebrated a historic five-fold success: after four gold medals in the apparatus finals, the exceptional athlete also won the all-around competition at the age of 16. She became the first German all-around world champion after Carla Rischer in 1975. The Russian-born woman, who came to Germany at the age of twelve, has already won World Championship gold six times, World Championship silver four times and World Championship bronze once.
Max Verstappen
At the age of 17 years and 166 days, the Dutchman drove in a Grand Prix for the first time, making him the youngest driver in Formula 1 history. He didn’t have a driver’s license yet. At the age of 18 years and 228 days, he took his first victory in the premier class in 2016 and has since become the youngest GP winner in history. So far, the three-time world champion has 54 race victories. He is also the youngest F1 driver in the points, the youngest driver with a fastest lap, the youngest with a grand slam of pole position, fastest lap and race win. He also achieved the most race wins in a row (10), the most podiums in a season (21), the most championship points in a season (575) and the most race wins in a season (19).
Jennifer Capriati
The American took part in a WTA tennis tournament for the first time at the age of 13 and became a professional tennis player. A little later she is in the final against Martina Navratilova at the Hilton Head tournament – she loses, but at 13 years and 11 months she is the youngest player to ever reach a final in professional tennis. In 1992 she beat Steffi Graf at the Olympic Games in Barcelona and won gold. In total, Capriati won three Grand Slam titles and became number one in the world rankings. Later she had problems and sport was no longer possible. In 2012 she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
Wayne Gretzky
Many consider “The Great One” to be the best ice hockey player of all time. The Canadian held a total of 61 NHL records when he retired in 1999. In his career in the National Hockey League, he scored 894 goals and 2,857 points in 1,487 regular season games – which is still a record to this day. He won the Stanley Cup four times with the Edmonton Oilers. After retiring, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the same year – there is usually a waiting period of three years. Since February 2000, he has also been the only player in NHL history whose shirt number (99) has been banned league-wide and can therefore no longer be given to an NHL player.
Michael Phelps
The American is the most successful swimmer in the world with 23 Olympic gold medals and 26 world titles. With 28 medals, he is also by far the most successful Olympian. At the age of 15, he took part in the Olympic Games for the first time in 2000; he was the youngest male swimmer on the US team in 68 years in Sydney. He still remained without a medal, but just five months later he swam his first of countless world records in the 200 meter butterfly. At the 2001 World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, Phelps won his first world title in the 200 meter butterfly at the age of 16 years and 24 days – setting a new world record.
Ian Thorpe
The Australian, who has shoe size 52, became a double world champion in swimming for the first time at the age of 15. “Thorpedo” won a total of eleven world championship titles and five Olympic victories and set 13 world records – making him the most successful swimmer in history in his home country. The swimming icon later admitted in his 2012 autobiography that he struggled with depression and alcohol addiction.