Sablone’s debut performance a source of pride
Old Saybrook native finishes 4th in skateboarding street final
Old Saybrook’s Alexis Sablone has been skateboarding for 25 years.
Since she was a kid, she’s put in countless hours mastering skills and tricks.
But even through all her experience and accolades, her father, Fran Sablone, still gets nervous every time she falls or fails a landing, especially since most skaters don’t wear helmets when competing.
So, he held in his nerves extra tightly as he watched Alexis compete in Sunday’s Olympic women’s street skateboarding preliminaries and final in Tokyo.
The 34-year-old was the lone American to make it past the event’s prelim round and placed fourth in the final in the sport’s Olympic debut with a score of 13.57. No longer was Fran filled with nerves anticipating the worst with every fall, but instead filled with excitement and happiness for his daughter in her Olympic debut.
“It was a real joy to watch my daughter to be able to compete at such a high level and to represent her country,” Fran said. “I’m so glad that she was able to make it into the final group and although she finished fourth it’s certainly something to be very very proud of.”
Fran, who watched the broadcast at home in Old Lyme with his family and friends, was proud to see Alexis continue her push in helping highlight women’s skateboarding, along with finishing so close to the podium despite being the oldest competitor in Sunday’s competition.
Japan’s Nishiya Momiji, 13, won the gold medal with 15.26 points, followed by Brazil’s Rayssa Leal, also 13, with 14.64 points earning silver and Japan’s Nakayama Funa, 16, winning bronze with 14.49 points.
“It’s crazy isn’t it,” he said. “They’re all so talented. It was just very inspiring and exhilarating.”
Alexis, rated the No. 12 street skater in the world, advanced to Sunday’s final after placing eighth in the prelim earlier in the evening. Out of the 20 total competitors, only the top eight skaters in the prelims got the chance to compete for the sport’s first Olympic medals.
In the street skateboarding event, skaters are scored on two 45-second runs through the course along with the combined best four scores out of five trick attempts.
Despite falling at the end of both of her course runs during the final, Alexis, a seven-time X-Games medalist, was able to solidify her spot within the top scorers through her trick attempts.
“She started out slowly which she does [often] because she doesn’t like the 45-second competition where you do a number of small runs but the bigger tricks, if you will, are what she likes,” Fran said. “I was relieved when she got through the first part and started getting into the rhythm of it a little bit more.”
In her first trick attempt in the final, Alexis successfully landed a kick-flip 50-50 off the railing of the eight-step stairs and scored a 4.03.
And after falling on her second trick attempt due to failing to land a kick-flip board slide, she got back up and tried the trick again on her third attempt.
This time, she landed it and scored her highest trick score of the day with a 5.01.
“She just gives it 100 percent and doesn’t give up. She picks herself up when she falls and tries it again and that’s how she really learned to do the sport and that’s what you have to do,” Fran said. “You have to fall a lot and it hurts. But she was true to herself and I think that’s how’s she’s always been.”
However, Alexis failed to land her last two trick attempts. The two final scratches placed her just one spot shy of the medal stand.
“She’s never been one to just do a routine that is plain or not filled with some extraordinary tricks, but they’re hard to land and that’s the risk-reward but that’s just her nature,” Fran said. “It’s a sport where there’s a lot of failure and there’s a lot of attempts because it’s so difficult.”
But to Alexis, winning medals and reaching the podium is not why she skateboards. She does the sport because she loves it.
“She loves the sport, she doesn’t love competition,” Fran said. “It’s a form of expression that I think she’s always enjoyed. … She would rather perform in an empty gymnasium because she’s doing it because she wants to do it, she loves to do it, not because she wants somebody to watch. It’s kinda particular but that’s the way she is.”
Skateboarding was one of five new sports debuting in the Olympics this summer. The chance to highlight the world’s top women skaters on Sunday added fuel to Alexis’ passion in the sport.
“For a longtime there were way fewer females doing this,” she told Team USA reporters following the final in Tokyo on Sunday. “It’s taken until now to get enough people to pay attention, to get enough eyes on it, to inspire girls around the world to start skating. [Leal] is a prodigy. She’s exceptional. It’s wild to see. And Momiji too . ... There’s a place for everyone. But it’s very important that the heart of skateboarding doesn’t die. And I don’t think it ever will.”
For Fran, watching his daughter’s continued push for women’s skateboarding means more to him than any podium placement ever would.
“I remember when she started the sport, especially in the women’s side, everybody knew Tony Hawk on the male side, but no one really knew the outstanding well-known female skateboarders,” Fran said. “She really helped grow the sport forward and she’s very proud of that. She’s a wonderful representative of the sport and of the United States and she just brings an added dimension to women’s skateboarding.”