Olympics age eligibility, explained: Minimum ages allowed by sport, youngest medal winners and more to know

Watching the Olympics is one of the easiest ways to feel old.

Whether it's a 16-year-old gymnast lighting up the competition or a 21-year-old sprinter blazing their way to a world record, the games serve as a reminder that the world's best athletes tend to be much younger than the majority of the global population.

That doesn't mean the Olympics are only for the young. While it depends on the sport, 39-year-old LeBron James could tell you it's possible to represent your country at a high level even at an age that most wouldn't consider to be an individual's peak.

Is there a limit, though, to how young an athlete can be to compete at the Olympics? That's a complicated question with complicated answers because of how many different nations and sports make up the games.

Here's what you need to know about the age eligibility requirements at the Olympics.

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How old to be in the Olympics?

The age question would be much less complicated if the Olympics had a firm eligibility requirement, but that's not the case. The official Olympic Charter states, "There may be no age limit for competitors in the Olympic Games other than as prescribed in the competition rules of an IF as approved by the IOC Executive Board."

So, can anyone participate in the Olympics? Not exactly. The age question is left up to each International Sports Federation, which sets its own limits that the Olympics respects. Some sports do set limits. For example, diving has a minimum age requirement of 14, while gymnastics set its minimum at 16.

However, the picture gets even cloudier because the age question is often left up to each country. Swimming and track and field, for example, don't set broad age limits, but each country can.

For most countries, including the U.S. and Canada, that age is 13. There are a few notable exceptions. Spain's minimum age is 14, while Russia's is 18. Poland, Ireland, and Netherlands require athletes to be 16, while Italy sets its requirement at 14. The full list can be found here .

Thirteen is the minimum age requirement for the vast majority of countries, but a handful of individual sports and a few notable countries have adjusted their rules so that 13 cannot be called the minimum Olympic age.

Minimum ages allowed by Olympic sport

Here are the minimum age requirements for some of the most popular Summer Olympics sports.

Many sports just don't have an age requirement at all, leaving it up to each individual country to determine how young is too young to be an Olympian.

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Youngest Olympic medal winners

Here's a look at the 10 youngest medalists in Olympics history.