At just 13 years of age. Nepali swimmer Gaurika Singh is all set to be the youngest Olympian at the Rio Olympic games.
Singh, already has considerable international competing experience and will get start her 2016 Olympic challenge when she competes in the 100m backstroke heats on Sunday.
“That’s quite cool, a bit unreal, too,” said Singh, who will be 13 years and 255 days old.
It’s not surprising the London-based schoolgirl, who swims for English club Barnet Copthall, is undaunted by the prospect. She has already lived through the 2015 earthquake that devastated Nepal, leaving nearly 9,000 dead.
“It was terrifying,” she said of the experience she endured with her mother, Garima, and younger brother Sauren while they were back in Nepal for the national swimming championships.
The family, in a fifth-floor apartment of a building in Kathmandu, sheltered under a table before using the stairs to leave the building as the aftershocks rumbled.
“Fortunately, it was a new building so it did not collapse like others around,” she said.
A friend of Singh’s father later set up a charity to help rebuild schools and she donated her winnings from the restaged championships.
“They made me a goodwill ambassador,” said Singh, who
MCC president Mark Nicholas. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
