Rumaysa Chader - skateboarding

Here is our skateboarding correspondent, Rumaysa Chader! She started skateboarding in lockdown and now loves it! She also boxes and is a taekwondo athlete. Here’s what she had to say about skateboarding:

It’s so exciting that this year is the first time that Skateboarding is being included as an Olympic Sport! And what’s even more amazing is that Sky Brown, who is representing Great Britain, will be the youngest ever person to compete in an Olympic Games!!! She’ll be only 13 years old when she competes, which is so cool and super inspiring!! There are also other incredible skateboarders taking part in the skateboarding games in Tokyo this year and I’m so looking forward to watching them all and reporting on all the action for ‘We are Girls in Sport’!

Here is Rumsaya’s report - great detail!

Teenage girls dominate Woman’s Olympic Skateboarding!!!

By Rumaysa Chader (aged 10)

I absolutely loved watching the woman’s Olympic skateboarding this year at the Tokyo Olympic Games!! This was the first year that skateboarding has ever been part of the Olympic games, which made it even more exciting and fascinating!! And wow - the athletes did not disappoint, putting in nail biting, gravity defying and utterly exhilarating performances across the board!

So in skateboarding, there are two events; street and park. In the street event, the athletes have to show their skills, usually called ‘tricks’, using a variety of obstacles, such as stairs, benches, slopes, curbs, walls and handrails - just like they would on a real street! Skaters do two rounds, lasting 45 seconds each and must perform five tricks within that time. In the street event, a panel of five judges score each run a score from 0 to 10.

In the park event, there is a huge bowl and ramps that skaters must perform a variety of complicated tricks on. Skaters can do three rounds, each round lasting 45 seconds, with scores in the park event ranging between 0 to 100 (with two decimal places). Judges award marks based on the level of difficulty of the each skater’s tricks, as well as the height and speed they reach, the originality and cleanness (the execution) of the moves and how the skaters put together their tricks (the composition).

Credit @California skatepark (taken from Olympic official website)

Credit @California skatepark (taken from Olympic official website)

In both the women’s events, the Japanese absolutely dominated the competition! In the park event, Japan bagged both the gold and silver and in street, they got Gold and Bronze! But what was even more extraordinary about this event, was the ages of the skaters themselves - every single one of the Olympic medallists (in both events) were teenagers!!

In the street event, on a blisteringly hot day on 26th July, the two top medallists were aged just 13 years old, and the bronze medal went to a 16 year old! It was Japan’s Momiji Nishiya, who took Gold with an amazing score of 15.26, and aged only 13, at that point she became Japan’s youngest ever Olympic champion! Brazil’s Rayssa Leal, who performed an incredible run scoring an impressive 14.64, won a silver medal aged only 13, which at that point made her the youngest Olympic medallist in 85 years! And 16 year old, Funa Nakayama, was only a few points behind her with a score of 14.49 who took the bronze medal for Japan.

Credit WWD

And then came the women’s park final, on 4th August in the Ariake Urban Sports park, where some brand new Olympic records were set!!

Japan’s 19 year old, Sakura Yosozumi performed an impressive run scoring her a solid 60.09, winning her the Gold. And aged only 12 years old, Kokona Hiraki only narrowly missed out on the top spot, with a score of 59.04, to take the silver medal for Japan. This amazing achievement broke the record set just a few days earlier and made her the youngest Japanese athlete on record to compete at a summer Olympic Games, as well as the youngest Olympic medallist in 85 years!

And finally, representing Great Britain was 13 year old, Sky Brown, who scored a spectacular 56.47 after her brilliant runs, earning her a bronze medal and making her Great Britain’s youngest ever medallist on record!! What makes Sky Brown’s achievement even more sensational is that just one year ago (in June 2020) Skye suffered horrific injuries in a skateboarding accident, which left her with a fractured skull and broken wrist as well as other injuries. How incredible to become an Olympic medallist after such a terrible injury.

credit - Time. Com, Ezra Shaw

I have found watching the women skateboarding events so incredibly inspiring, because it just goes to show that even at such a young age and even in the face of adversity and hardship, girls from around the world can become record breaking Olympic medallist and champions!! Girls can do anything they set their mind to, as long as you’re willing to put in hard work and effort - anything is possible!!!