She has just become a teenager, but got her Olympic place as a twelve-year-old.
Sky Brown, who lives in California but with a Japanese mother and British father, will compete for the UK when the skateboard park enters the Olympic program.
She’s one of the Tokyo games most described name, and her young age arouses both curiosity – and criticism.
At the same time, she is not the only child athlete.
In the street sport, another 13-year-old (Japanese Momiji Nishiya) won gold earlier in the Olympics. And in table tennis, 12-year-old Hend Zaza was from Syria the youngest participants in the whole game.
– There is a big and dark backside we rarely talk about, Göran Kenttä – responsible for sports psychology at the Swedish Sports Confederation – has told Expressen about children competing on adult terms.
– There are many examples of children who have not had a normal upbringing.
Swedish skateboard star and Olympic hopeful Oskar Rozenberg, who will make his Olympic debut later this week, is developing for DN in general:
– I would probably say that the biggest risk, really always but even more when you are very young, is if you are pushed to do things that you do not really want.
– Maybe that the parents push you to be in the media, get a lot of attention and get great sponsors from a young age. And then when you grow up you look back and feel that you did not have time to be a child, that you were forced.
– Skateboard star Sky Brown lives in the US, has Japanese-British parents and competes for the UK.
Foto: Charlie Neibergall/AP
“Oski”, himself 24 years old, has received many questions about Sky Brown and her age, he says.
Not least from Swedish media.
– But as long as she has fun and as long as she is honest with herself and does this because it’s fun, I see no major risk with it.
There should be no downward age limit?
– No I do not think so. It’s fun with Sky who is 13 and then Rune Glifberg from Denmark (skateboard, park) who is 46. So it’s fat, that there is such a big age difference, says Rozenberg and adds specifically about Sky Brown:
– I have seen her at quite a lot of competitions, it seems that she is ready. From what I’ve seen, it looks like she’s having fun. So I wish her all the best.
– Skateboard makes its debut on the Olympic program. Grenen street has already been decided. Now competitions await in the park, where Sky Brown competes the night before Wednesday Swedish time.
Photo: Mickael Chavet / TT
Sky Brown tog World Cup bronze 2019 but a year later it looked like there would be no Olympics.
The accident occurred in May 2020 when she fell helplessly 4.5 meters with her head in front from a skateboard ramp. She was unconscious when she arrived at the hospital, and had suffered several skull fractures, a broken wrist and broken fingers.
The injuries were life-threatening.
– The next thing I remember is that I wake up in the hospital, says Brown according to The Guardian.
– They only let in one person at a time from my family. I saw my mother first and she cried. It made me feel very bad. I did not want them to feel so scared.
She posted herself a well-directed video on the crash on Instagram and Youtube.
Half-lying and bruised in a hospital bed, surrounded by balloons and stuffed animals, 11-year-old Brown, with tears in his throat, sent a greeting to his hundreds of thousands of followers:
“It’s okay, do not worry. I will rise, and reach even higher. ”
Yes, she came back and made a comeback in May this year.
Now Brown competes in the Olympics on Wednesday night Swedish time – and is described by American skateboard legend Tony Hawk as a gold candidate together with Japanese World Cup runner-up Sakura Yosozumi (19) and Finnish World Cup runner-up Lizzie Armanto (28).
However, the competitions and medals are only part of the young skateboard professional’s career.
Despite his young age, Sky Brown has managed to write the book “Sky’s the limit”, released music singles, won the junior version of the American TV show “Dancing with the stars” and was a model for a Barbie doll for the company Mattel, one of the world’s largest toy manufacturers.
I want to push the boundaries of young girls.
Brown, who started skating with her dad and his friends on a self-built ramp in the family backyard and later turned to Youtube to learn new tricks, says according to the Olympic official media channel that she thrives in a role as a role model.
– I want to push the boundaries for young girls with my skating and with my surfing (a sport she also does). That there has been a Barbie made for me is one of the most incredible things that has happened to me.
– It is very important for me to be a role model. I have often been the only girl in a skate park or out on the waves. Girls often think “he can do this, because he is a guy and I can not do it because I am a girl”. It’s my dream to change that. So yes, I have a responsibility. It makes me want to be a better person.
– Sky Brown during training in Ariake Park in Tokyo.
Photo: Ben Curtis / AP