My final Pint-Sized Phenoms installment of 2012 is indicative of the variety of overachievers that I've highlighted on this blog throughout the year. 1) Let's start with the youngest: 9-month-old twins Ellie and William Trykush. These British babies made waves worldwide earlier this month when a video of them swimming the length of the pool on their own appeared.
I didn't show this one to my husband (who, as I wrote about before, really wants our son to be a top-notch early swimmer), but if he does see it he console himself with the knowledge that our son walked first...
2) She may be 9-years-old instead of 9 months, but Samantha Gordon made a similar splash last month when her athletic prowess showed up on YouTube (since removed after over 2 million views). The football quarterback beat out close to 200 other kids (almost all boys) to become a starting QB in her league in Utah. And she then proceeded to perform spectacularly. So spectacularly that she became the first female football player to appear on a Wheaties box.
While Sam hopes to be European football player someday, she says she'll stick with American football for a few more years. Hopefully the newly announced women's professional soccer league will still be around in the US in a few years.
3) The case of 4-year-old phenom Hudson Kroenig is slightly different. Hudson doesn't make the post because of his sporting skills, but rather because he looks sporting. Hudson is becoming a regular on the fashion catwalks, as I've written about before. Earlier this month he walked for Chanel, as he's done before. The reaction to Hudson, I feel, reveals a real double-standard (pushing boys at a young age to model is "cute," pushing girls is "sexual") not unlike the way many female athletes are treated.
Hopefully 2013 will bring more boundary-crossing pint-sized phenoms in a variety of fields, ages, and across sex.