Brown’s bronze ‘a catalyst’ for the sport
British skateboarders have spoken of their hope that teenager Sky Brown’s Olympic medal success will lead to a fresh boom in the sport.
Just 28 days after her 13th birthday, Brown became Great Britain’s youngest medallist of all time when she won bronze in the women’s park skateboarding final in the Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday morning.
After falling in her first two runsofthefinal,the13-year-old nailed her last attempt with a score of 56.47 to finish behind Japanese pair Sakura Yosozumi and Kokona Hiraki.
Lucy Adams, a professional skater who is Skateboard GB’s progression project lead, said: “I’m absolutely stoked for her and her phenomenal performance. She absolutely smashed it. I couldn’t be more proud of her.
“Thisisacatalystforanother boom in the sport.”
MsAdams,whowasbehind the move to bring Brown on to Team GB, said she spotted her talent early on.
She said: “I saw her when she eight, nine years old. She actually came over here and competed in a competition we had over here and literally
just blew me away with one of the technical tricks she did on a ramp that was like twice the sizeofher,andwejustformeda relationship back then and we kept in touch.
“Thiswaswaybeforeskateboarding was announced for the Olympics and when we got that announcement, we just had a conversation between Stu (Sky’s dad) and Sky about the potential to give it a go.
“Knowing that she was so young and not wanting to put anypressureonanysortofspecific expectations, and just say ifyouwanttotakepart,goforit and have fun. There are no expectations from us.”