The Sky is the limit: it’s the summer of sport!
This year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo has given Team GB it’s youngest ever Olympic medallist. 13-year-old Sky Brown, whose mother is from Japan and Father from Britain, struck gold (bronze) during the women’s skateboarding park finals on Tuesday (August 4th, 2021), coming third place and becoming the UK’s official youngest ever Olympic winner.
This year’s Olympic Games are the first ever games to recognise skateboarding and BMXing as an Olympic sport, bringing great pride and excitement to skateboarding and BMX communities all around the world. Both sports are incredibly complex, not to mention the risk of extreme injury; falling from a vert 1080, slipping on a kickflip fakey, or bailing on a nosegrind, skateboarding is arguably one of the most difficult sports in the world and requires an immense amount of patience and determination.
Sky, when speaking to Sky Sports after her bronze medal win, spoke about the beauty of skateboarding and the accessibility of sport, claiming: “Skateboarding is a really beautiful, very cool sport. I think lots of people will love it and you can do it anywhere, you know? You don’t have to find a [skate] park, you can do it on a flat run. Everyone can skate. If you haven’t found a sport yet, then just do it all. I think you can do all different kinds of sports and that’s what I do. Just get out there, try new things and take baby steps and see what happens.” Sky’s words on skateboarding and finding your own sport reign true…you really can do anything if you want to! Sky is a perfect example of this; she’s a semi self-taught skater who learns her tricks on YouTube!
So, grab your board, have a running race, go swimming, or play some frisbee! Sport is for everyone, regardless of background! Keep pushing, and you never know where you’ll end up.
The Sky is the limit…
Written by: Amber Howells
Edited by: Amber Howells
