Amazing young stars in the UK

Amazing young stars - 22nd January 2024

The UK has some talented young stars at the moment.

Bodhana Sivanandan’s only eight but she’s an excellent chess player. In a ‘blitz’ chess competition in Europe, she won best female player.

Blitz chess matches, which take 3-5 minutes to play, mean you have to think fast. But Sivanandan’s relaxed.

Luke Littler’s also calm about events. He just got to the World Darts Championship finals. At 16, he’s the youngest person to do this.

Another amazing child is Teddy Hobbs, who’s extremely clever. He’s become the youngest member of Mensa at five years old and he taught himself to read when he was two. Teddy learns new skills really quickly. For example, he can count to 100 in six different languages. He also finds maths really easy.

But sometimes it’s hard for these young people because they receive lots of attention. They have great experiences but can feel different from other children.

SportsAid is a charity. They discovered that nearly half of young sports stars felt unhappy and anxious. Top athletes Naomi Osaka, Simone Biles and Michael Phelps have spoken about these problems.

Luckily, Sivanandan doesn’t get nervous. She understands that you can’t always win. "Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't”.