13-year-old Olympic skateboarder Momiji Nishiya turns into one of many youngest gold medal winners ever
At 13 years previous, skateboarder Momiji Nishiya of Japan simply turned one of many youngest gold medal winners ever on the Olympic Video games. The ladies standing by her aspect on the rostrum? Additionally youngsters.
Nishiya took residence the gold Monday within the ladies’s road competitors — which debuted in Tokyo for the very first time. It sealed her nation’s destiny as the present dominating pressure in skateboarding, following a win by Yuto Horigome within the males’s competitors the day prior.
“I welled up in tears as a result of I used to be past joyful,” Nishiya stated after her win, which came about in a virtually empty sports activities park.
Nishiya landed her remaining three methods and was awarded huge scores to beat out Rayssa Leal of Brazil, additionally simply 13. Greater than half of the ladies within the remaining competitors had been of their teenagers — Funa Nakayama of Japan, who clinched the bronze medal, is the eldest medal winner at 16.
Each Nishiya and Leal at the moment are the youngest ever medalists of their international locations.
“It isn’t proper to suppose, effectively it’s a must to research, you’ll be able to’t go skating as a result of skating is for boys,” Leal instructed Reuters. “I believe skateboarding is for everybody.”
The youngest gold medalist ever was Marjorie Gestring, who dominated the ladies’s diving competitors on the 1936 Berlin Video games at age 13 years and 268 days. Nishiya is approaching her 14th birthday.
“I need extra rivals, which is able to make skating extra enjoyable,” Nakayama stated.
Most of the skaters shared the same sentiment — they need women to see that anybody can skate.
“For a very long time, there have been approach fewer females doing this,” Group USA’s Alexis Sablone, who positioned fourth, instructed Reuters. “It is taken till now for sufficient individuals to concentrate, to get sufficient eyes on it, to encourage extra women world wide to begin skating.”