There is no official age limit to compete for the U.S. Olympic Team. If you鈥檙e among the country鈥檚 top athletes and make it through your sport鈥檚 qualification process, you could become an Olympian at age 100. Things get tricky, though, depending on your sport.
Each sport鈥檚 international federation imposes its own age regulations, and while most governing bodies typically enforce minimum age requirements to protect young athletes from exploitation and injury, soccer鈥檚 governing body imposes a different sort of age restriction.
FIFA ruled in 1992 that male Olympic soccer players , and that only three players per team may be older than 23. Doing so allows FIFA to showcase up-and-coming talent at the Olympics, as well as preserve the popularity of the federation鈥檚 own quadrennial tournament, the FIFA World Cup, by saving its most famous players for FIFA competition only. There are, however, no age restrictions for the women鈥檚 teams, presumably because FIFA doesn鈥檛 yet feel the same need to keep its brightest female athletes over 23 to itself.
Just the other week, NBA commissioner David Stern also made the case that the U.S. should restrict the age of its Olympic basketball players to under 23. The likely reason? The NBA doesn鈥檛 want to send its stars overseas to play for free or risk injury. An injury at the summer games could hurt an athlete鈥檚 upcoming season and have a negative financial impact on his home team