from Reuters
Image: Reuters

Haley Ishimatsu, United States, 15
Ishimatsu is competing in the 10m and synchronized 10m diving events. Originally a gymnast, she turned to diving in 2004, and moved to Indianapolis to attend USA Diving's Training Center in 2006. She made her international diving debut the same year.

Chen Ruolin, China, 15
Olympic gold medalist in the women's 10m synchronized platform, Chen began diving at the age of 4 and made her international debut in the Doha Asian Games as a 13-year-old. The teenager topped the women's 10m platform qualifiers held in Canada in May.

Mary-Beth Dunnichay, United States, 15
The youngest member of the U.S. team, Dunnichay is 5 months younger than diving partner Haley Ishimatsu. Both train six hours a day, six days a week. A bronze medalist in synchronized 10m at 2007 Pan American Games, home-schooled Dunnichay started diving in 1999.

Tom Daley, Britain, 14
Britain's second youngest Olympian, Daley says he is using the Games as a springboard towards a diving medal at his home Olympics in 2012. Eldest of three sons, he won the European 10-metre platform title. Also performed in the synchronized event where his 26-year-old partner blamed him for their poor showing.

Dwayne Didon, Seychelles, 13
Didon, the Games' youngest male athlete, will swim in the 50m freestyle. Growing up at the top of a mountain in the east African archipelago nation, Didon learnt to swim when he was 9 and became one of the island nation's top swimmers in just four years. His family lives in the village of La Misere, or misery.

Antoinette Joyce Guedia Mouafo, Cameroon, 12
Women's 50 meter freestyle swimmer Guedia is the youngest athlete at Beijing, aged 12 years 10 months. She has rarely swum in an Olympic-sized pool. Nicknamed "Champion" by her excited schoolfriends, Guedia still trains in the same 22-metre (72-feet) hotel pool where she learned to swim at age 8.

What do you think, should children take part in competitions like the Olympics? What do you think about young people training such long hours for the event?