The continued rise of Luke Littler in the world of darts has been one of the big sporting stories over the last two years. The Warrington wonderkid burst onto the scene with a record-breaking run to the final of the PDC World Darts Championship at the age of just 16 - a run which propelled darts into the spotlight and was just the beginning of the Luke Littler story.

In January, ‘The Nuke’ became the youngest PDC world champion in history, at 17-years-old, and this week he has moved to the top of the world rankings at just 18. But where does Littler’s success rank among the other teen sporting sensations? From Pelé to Boris Becker, ‘The Nuke’ is in very esteemed company...

Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé, is widely regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time. The late Brazilian striker holds the record for the most career goals with a staggering 1,279 goals scored between 1956 and 1977.

Pelé made his senior debut for Santos at the age of 15, scoring on his first appearance, and would go on to be the top goalscorer in the Brazilian league’s top flight for nine consecutive seasons, including a record 58 goals in the 1958 season whilst still a teenager.

In 1958, a 17-year-old Pelé helped lead Brazil to their first FIFA World Cup triumph, scoring six goals in four games during the tournament, including a hat-trick in the 5-2 win against France in the semi-finals and a brace in the final against Sweden (also 5-2).

Nadia Comăneci wrote her name into the record books at the age of just 14 when she became the first gymnast in Olympic history to be awarded the perfect score of 10. At the 1976 Montreal Olympics, the Romanian teenager became a household name with her flawless performance on the uneven bars.

There was some confusion around Comăneci’s historic feat, as the scoreboard displayed her score as 1.00. The International Olympic Committee had told the official timers that three digits would be sufficient for the electronic scoreboard, as a score of 10.00 was impossible. However, the announcer informed Comăneci that she had scored a perfect 10 and made history.

Comăneci would score a total of seven perfect 10s at the Olympics that year en route to winning three gold medals. Four years later, the gymnast bagged another two gold medals at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, whilst still a teenager.

Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all time with a record 28 total medals including another record 23 gold medals. The American is regarded as the GOAT of swimming with his longevity in the sport seeing him become a world champion at 16 and then still winning individual Olympic gold at 31.

In the 2001 US National Championships, Phelps became the youngest male to set a world record in swimming, with a record time of 1:54:92 in the 200m butterfly, at just 15 years of age. Later that year, Phelps broke his own world record en route to becoming a world champion for the first time, only a few weeks after his 16th birthday.

Aged 19, Phelps wrote his name into the record books again with an astonishing haul of six gold medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics. He would go on to claim another 17 gold medals at the next three Olympic Games, taking his overall tally to 23 - a number that is unlikely to ever be broken.

Ronnie O’Sullivan is widely acknowledged as the best snooker player in history with a record 41 ranking titles, including seven World Championships, and a record 1,300+ century breaks. ‘The Rocket’ has been at the top of the snooker world for more than 30 years, with his legendary career starting with several landmark title wins during his teenage years.

O’Sullivan made his first competitive 147 break at the 1991 English Amateur Championship, then aged just 15, and two years later he claimed his first ranking title. O’Sullivan’s victory at the 1993 UK Championship, just seven days before his 18th birthday, made him the youngest-ever winner of a ranking event.

A teenage O’Sullivan continued setting records with his triumph at the 1995 Masters, then aged 19, making him the youngest Masters champion in history. O’Sullivan’s immense longevity in the sport was further highlighted when he won the 2023 UK Championship at 47-years-old, a feat which saw him become both the youngest and oldest winner of the tournament.

Steffi Graf achieved the historic feat in tennis of becoming the first player to complete the Golden Slam as a teenager in 1988. The German was the youngest player to complete in the main draw of a major when she was just 13 years of age at the 1983 French Open.

Graf won the first of her incredible 22 major singles titles at the 1987 French Open, just a week before her 18th birthday. A few months later, Graf dethroned Martina Navratilova as the world number one, a position she would then hold for the next 186 consecutive weeks.

In 1988, a teenage Graf would write her name into the record books, winning all four major singles titles and the Olympic gold medal in the same calendar year. Graf’s major-winning streak continued with a victory at the 1989 Australian Open - her sixth major singles title won before the age of 20.

Martina Hingis was another teenage phenomenon in the world of tennis with all of her five major singles titles being won before her 19th birthday. In 1996, the Swiss star became the youngest ever winner of a grand slam title when she teamed up with Helena Suková to win the Wimbledon women’s doubles event at the age of 15.

Later that year, Hingis won her first professional singles title in Germany and showed her potential as a future major singles champion with runs to the Australian Open quarter-finals and the US Open semi-finals. At the start of 1997, Hingis made more history by winning the Australian Open, becoming the youngest grand slam singles winner in the 20th century at just 16-years-old.

In that same calendar year, Hingis won the Wimbledon and US Open singles titles, and just fell short of completing the full set, losing in the final of the French Open. A teenage Hingis added two more major singles titles to her tally with another two victories in the Australian Open in 1998 and 1999.

Boris Becker holds the record for being the youngest ever Wimbledon men’s singles champion. The German ended the near-decade dominance of Björn Borg, John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors when he went all the way at SW19 in 1985, then at the age of just 17.

His triumph that year also saw him become the first unseeded player to win the title. At the time, Becker had also set a new record as the youngest ever male Grand Slam singles champion (17 years and 227 days), a feat that would later be broken when Michael Chang won the French Open in 1989 (17 years and 110 days).

The following year, an 18-year-old Becker successfully defended his Wimbledon title, defeating the number one Ivan Lendl in straight sets in the final. Becker would then have to wait another three years before getting his hands on major singles silverware again, as he completed a hat-trick of victories at Wimbledon in 1989, then at the age of 21.

Mike Tyson is the youngest world heavyweight champion in boxing history, winning the WBC title in 1986 at just 20 years and 145 days old. Although his first heavyweight title came at the start of his 20s, ‘Iron Mike’ was already forging his legacy as a teenager.

The American made his professional debut as an 18-year-old and beat Hector Mercedes via first-round TKO. Tyson was in action frequently during his first years in the ring, including 15 bouts within the first 12 months of turning pro.

Before turning 20, Tyson had built up a perfect 23-0 professional record, which included a frightening 14 wins inside the first round. Only a few months after turning 20, Tyson would make history by defeating the WBC heavyweight champion Trevor Berbick by TKO in the second round to become the youngest heavyweight champion in history.

Katie Ledecky is the most decorated female swimmer in history with her glittering career taking off during her teenage years. The American won gold in the 800m freestyle at the 2012 London Olympics, at the age of just 15, winning the final by more than four seconds.

A year later, a 16-year-old Ledecky took home four gold medals at the 2013 World Championships, during which she also broke numerous world records. Ledecky continued to set the pace in another successful World Championships in 2015, then aged 18, winning five gold medals.

In her last major competition as a teenager, Ledecky bagged another four gold medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Into her 20s, Ledecky’s trophy cabinet has continued to grow with a pair of gold medals at each of the next two Olympic Games putting her third on the all-time list of most successful Olympians ever.

Luke Littler has already amassed a hall-of-fame calibre career and set a number of records all before entering his 20s. ‘The Nuke’ burst onto the scene with a run to the final of the 2023/24 PDC World Darts Championship, and at just 16-years-old was the youngest player to compete in the final of the sport’s biggest tournament.

Even before his emergence on the grand stage at Alexandra Palace, Littler was building his reputation as one to watch out for. In 2021, he won the WDF-ranked Irish Open at the age of 14, and a year later he competed in the WDF World Championship at Lakeside, with a first-round victory against Ben Hazel seeing him become the youngest player to win a match at just 15.

In his first season on the PDC tour, Littler shattered even more records as he won the Premier League on debut last year. ‘The Nuke’ hit a nine-dart finish in the final against Luke Humphries and his triumph at 17 made him the youngest ever winner of a PDC major title.

Littler followed up that Premier League success with victories in the World Series of Darts Finals and Grand Slam of Darts, before embarking on another record-breaking campaign at Alexandra Palace. At the start of January, just a few weeks before his 18th birthday, Littler defeated Michael van Gerwen 7-3 in the PDC World Darts Championship final to become the youngest PDC world champion in history.

More major silverware has followed for the teenage sensation this year as Littler has won the UK Open, World Matchplay, World Grand Prix and, this past weekend, he retained the Grand Slam of Darts. Littler’s latest victory in Wolverhampton was his eighth PDC major title, putting him joint fourth on the all-time list, and also saw him become the youngest world number one in the history of the sport.

Weekly Dartscast co-host Burton DeWitt says: “I think Luke Littler’s definitely on the list, but I’m not going to put him at number one. Darts has become more global but it still doesn’t compare to some other sports that are played on a truly global level by millions of people.

“Luke’s in the conversation but he’s not on the same level as some of the tennis players we’ve seen. Steffi Graf won the Golden Slam whilst 18 and 19 years old in 1988 - that’s all four slams plus the Olympic gold medal. She had six Grand Slam titles, the gold medal, Tour Championships and countless other titles before she turned 20.

“Martina Hingis won five singles slam titles before she turned 20 and eight major titles in the doubles. She dethroned Steffi Graff at the top of the rankings as a 17-year-old winning three slams. Boris Becker won back-to-back Wimbledons at 17 and 18.

“I think there’s a good case to go with Steffi Graf or Martina Hingis, but I think number one has to be Pelé. He won the World Cup at the age of 17, including six goals in the knockout stage. Before he turned 20, he’d already scored 25 goals for Brazil, including four hat-tricks, and one of those was in the World Cup semi-finals against France. Hundreds of millions of people play football and he put them all to shame, so because of how good he was at young age I’ll go with Pelé first.”

Weekly Dartscast co-host Alex Moss says: “We’ve got to take our rose-tinted glasses off for this one when we’re looking at other sports as well. I think with Luke Littler we’ve got so used to watching him now that his age is not really a talking point anymore. I remember his debut at Ally Pally when he made the final at 16 and you couldn’t go a sentence or two when talking about Luke without mentioning his age.

“I think Luke’s resume does stand up with a lot of the other successful teenagers in sport. Plus, he’s still got another 14 months until he turns 20, so imagine what he can add to that between now and then as well.

“Boris Becker is one that stood out for me, winning Wimbledon at 17 and being the first unseeded player to win the title, then defending it a year later, still as a teenager. I don’t think Luke Littler is number one on the list just yet.

“But time is on Luke’s side and if he can win another world title, either the one coming up or the one after, and get to two world titles, that might just sway it for me. If he goes back-to-back-to-back at Ally Pally and becomes a three-time PDC world champion before he turns 20 then he will be number one. For the moment he’s right in contention, but I think there’s a few others that are just ahead of him for now.”

Where do you rank Luke Littler on sport’s all-time teenage stars list? Get in touch with the Darts Corner team on our socials and let us know your thoughts!

Pictures: PDC