Who is the Youngest Ever Woman Gold Medalist? Top 10 Revealed

The Olympics are a time of celebration. However, they are also a time to marvel at the athletic feats of the world’s best athletes. With so many different events and countries represented, it’s hard to believe that some competitors are under 20. But there are! There have been ten women who were under 20 when they won their first Olympic gold medal. Here they are:

10. Claressa Shields – 17

Claressa Shields (born December 18, 1995) is a boxer from Flint, Michigan. She is the first American boxer to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals and the youngest American Olympic boxing champion.

In 2012, she won the gold medal in women’s middleweight at the London Games. She won a gold medal in 2016 at the Rio Olympics in women’s middleweight.

In September 2017, Shields was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame as its youngest member ever elected at age 22. In March 2018, she was named “Sports Illustrated”/”Yahoo Sports” Female Athlete of the Year.

After winning her second gold medal in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Claressa retired from boxing due to brain damage caused by her sport.

9. Sandy Neilson – 16

Neilson is an American former competition swimmer. Neilson won her only Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) national championship in 1971 in the 100-yard freestyle. She won three Olympic gold medals and one silver medal, competing in the 1972 Summer Olympics at 16. She was also a US team member that won the 4×100-meter medley relay at those games. She set world record times in 100-meter and 200-meter freestyle events in 1971.

Neilson won her only Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) national championship in 1971 in the 100-yard freestyle. That same year she set a world record in the 200-meter freestyle event with a time of 2:07:22 at an AAU meet in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

8. Lilian Watson – 14

Lilian Watson is one of the youngest women gold medalists, earning her first gold at 14.

Watson was 14 years old when she took home the gold as a first-place U.S. swim team member in the 4×100 meter women’s freestyle relay at the 1964 Tokyo games. The team set a world record with their time of 4:24:8.4, which stood until 1988 when East Germany broke it.

In 1968, she won individual gold in the 200-meter backstroke at the Mexico City games after winning two relay medals at Rome in 1960 and Tokyo in 1964. She also won silver medals in both relays at those same Olympics.

After retiring from competitive swimming in 1970, Watson became an actress and model before becoming an administrator for USA Swimming (the governing body for competitive swimming). In 1984, she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

7. Betty Robinson – 16

Betty Robinson was a track and field star in the early 1900s who was the youngest American to win a gold medal. She did so at the Olympics in Amsterdam, where she won the 100-meter sprint at age 16.

Robinson grew up in Chicago and started running track when she was eight. She went to college at Wilberforce University, where she competed on the track team.

Although she set records at school and won several events, she wasn’t initially considered a serious contender for Olympic gold. But when she competed at an international meet in Paris, France, she beat all of her competitors by two seconds—and set yet another record with her time of 11 seconds flat!

After winning gold in Amsterdam, Robinson continued competing until 1931, when she retired from professional sports.

6. Nadia Comaneci – 14

Nadia Comaneci (born November 12, 1961) is a Romanian former gymnast and current gymnastics coach. She was the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10 at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada.

Comaneci is famous for her perfect execution of the floor exercise and uneven bars during the 1976 Olympics. She won three gold medals and one bronze medal at those games, establishing herself as one of the most celebrated gymnasts in history.

She made her Olympic debut at age 14 and became known for her style and gracefulness on the balance beam, where she often smiled between skills and performed them in sequence without stopping.

5. Kim Yun-Mi -13

At 13 years old, South Korean short-track speed skater Kim Yun-Mi became the youngest-ever Olympic gold medalist.

She was 13 years old when she won gold in the short track speed skating 3000-meter relay for South Korea in the 1994 Winter Olympics. She claimed another gold at the 1998 Nagano Olympics for the same event.

Yun-Mi was born on December 1st, 1984, in Seoul, South Korea, and was raised by her single mother, a housewife. She started skating at six years old after seeing her older brother compete in a local competition and decided to give it a try herself.

4. Fu Mingxia – 13

Fu Mingxia was only 13 years old when she won the gold medal for China in the 1992 Barcelona games. She was also the youngest woman to win a world championship in platform diving. She joined famed American divers Pat McCormick and Greg Louganis as the world’s only quadruple Olympic-diving champions.

The Chinese girl’s first dive was an inward 3 ½ somersault with 2 ½ twists. She performed a back 2 ½ somersault in her second dive with 1 ½ twists. In her third dive, Fu performed another back 2 ½ somersault with 1 ½ twists, but this time added a reverse 2 ½ somersault pike at the end of her routine.

Mingxia had previously competed at the 1988 Seoul Olympics as an 11-year-old but did not win any medals then.

3. Momiji Nishiya – 13

The youngest person to win a gold medal in an Olympic event was Momiji Nishiya. She was 13 years old when she took home the first-ever women’s street skating competition title at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Nishiya, who is from Japan, has been skating since she was three years old, and she started competing in competitions at age seven. At age 13, she became the youngest person ever to win a gold medal in an Olympic event. Her mother was also a competitive skater who competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Nishiya has won many awards throughout her career as a skater, including multiple gold medals at international competitions and sixth place at the 2022 World Championships. She also ranked fifth in the Olympic World Skateboard rankings before the Olympics began this year.

2. Nadia Comaneci – 14

It’s hard to believe that the first ever Olympic Gold Medalist was 14 years old. But it’s true! Nadia Comaneci was the first-ever gymnast to score a perfect ten at the 1976 Olympics, and she did it twice.

Comaneci was born in 1961 in Romania and started gymnastics at age 6. By age nine, she had already been chosen as part of Romania’s national team, and in 1972 she won two gold medals at the Junior European Championships in Belgium.

In 1976 Comaneci became famous when she scored her first perfect ten during the Montreal Olympics—a mark that had never been achieved before by a female gymnast! She followed up by scoring another perfect ten at those same games, making her the only person to do so.

1. Marjorie Gestring

13-year-old Marjorie Gestring was the youngest woman to win a gold medal in diving. She did so at the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics, where she competed as an amateur.

Gestring took home the gold in the 3-meter springboard event and won bronze in the 10-meter platform event. She was part of a United States team that took home five medals overall, including three golds and two silvers.

Born on November 18th, 1922, in San Francisco, CA, Gestring began diving at age nine after being encouraged by her mother. At 13 years old, she started competing seriously with the national team, winning gold at the 1935 AAU Championships in Buffalo, NY, and then again at the 1936 AAU meet in Philadelphia.