Need a role model? Reach for star Sky
I’m on board with Olympic skater girl
What an incredible role model Olympian Sky Brown is. The 13-year-old, who this week made history as Great Britain’s youngest medallist, shows kids what can be achieved with a huge dollop of commitment and determination.
I want my daughters, three-year-old Penelope and seven-year-old Belle, to look at her and see what can be done through hard work and dedication.
It was so refreshing to see Sky and her teammates in Tokyo, cheering each other on with smiles and hugs all the way through the skateboarding event.
The young women consoled each other when something went wrong and congratulated each other’s success. We can all learn something from that. After winning her bronze, Sky said she couldn’t let the boys have all the fun.
That set a good example for women in her sport and sent out a clear message: We can do anything we want!
Sky deserves extra praise for coming back from a bad accident last year, bravely rebuilding her confidence in her body and her talent. What an example!
There’s no end to her enthusiasm, and it’s wonderful to see someone so young brimming with so much confidence.
I’m sure kids are looking at her and believing dreams really do come true. Sky is already a star with more than one million Instagram followers, but I predict she’ll go stratospheric.
I can’t wait to see her collect more medals in Paris 2024.
Elsewhere at the Games, American gymnast Simone
Biles silenced her critics with a triumphant bronze medal return. It was wonderful to watch.
I felt for her when she was hammered on social media for pulling out of three events because of her mental health.
Simone was suffering from “the twisties”, a kind of mental block that can suddenly hit gymnasts and put them at risk during spins or flips.
She could have ended up paralysed if something had gone wrong. But Simone bravely conveyed the message that it’s okay to say things are not okay.
There’s been much debate, but nobody should be expected to just plough on when their mental health is suffering. Surely we’ve learned that by now?
Olympic child prodigy Dominique
Moceanu, who competed at the 1996
Games, this week told how she was too scared to say no to the demands of being a top gymnast.
At 14, she fought through pain while competing at the US Nationals, and was later diagnosed with a fractured tibia.
She was too frightened to cry in practice, so would drag herself to her room to do it in private. How very sad.
In the past, Simone might have carried on, then written an autobiography years later about how she felt obliged to push through despite feeling terrible.
The irony is, we’d all have thought it awful she was put through the wringer.