"If you're an academy specialist, then seeing the young people get their debuts, that's your trophy, says Ryan, who headed the Arsenal academy's athletic development for nine years."
"These older teenagers are playing adult sport, and excelling at it. Teenage talent is always captivating, but recently there seems to have been a glut of it."
"Sky Brown won her second world championship at 17, but by this point, she's an old hand: she took her first gold when she was 14."
"Is there a pattern here? Or is this parade of prodigies simply a mirage, the kind of optical illusion presented to every generation of ageing sports fans?"
Des Ryan, director of sports and physical wellbeing at the University of Galway, reflects on the rise of young athletes like Max Dowman, Marli Salmon, and Brando Bailey-Joseph in football. This trend is mirrored in other sports, with figures like skateboarder Sky Brown and darts champion Luke Littler achieving success at young ages. The phenomenon raises questions about whether this influx of teenage talent is a consistent pattern or merely a fleeting occurrence in sports history.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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