The 11-year-old Chinese skateboarder Zheng Haohao. Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times

Is China’s quest for gold shifting gears?

Zheng Haohao, also known by her nickname Lilibet, is an 11-year-old skateboarder and the youngest athlete at the Paris Games. She may also represent the future of Chinese Olympic stars.

For decades, the country has harnessed tens of thousands of small children in hopes of forging a tiny fraction of them into Olympic champions. But Lilibet grew up in the insurgent sport of skateboarding and largely outside the state’s full embrace. Her carefree attitude has prompted questions of whether it’s worth pushing Chinese athletes so hard for national glory.