At only 13 years old, the Japanese Momiji Nishiya made history and became the first Olympic champion in street skateboarding.
In 2021, a big novelty for the Olympic Games: skateboarding is entering the competition! With a view to rejuvenating its audience, 2 new disciplines have been launched: street and park (or bowl).
This Monday, July 26, the final of women’s street skateboarding was placed under the sign of youth! Indeed, of the eight finalists present at the event, six were between 13 and 20 years old.
At the age of 13, Momiji Nishiya has just made history by becoming the first Olympic skateboarding champion. The young Japanese finished ahead of the Brazilian Rayssa Leal (13) and the Japanese Funa Nakayama (16).
In street, the rider must string together very technical tricks on different modules imitating street furniture such as ramps for example. During the competitions, the skaters do two runs of 45 seconds each and then follow with five tricks.
At the end, only the three best scores are taken into account for the final score. Nishiya got 15.26 points, Leal 14.64 and and Nakayama 14.49.
A remarkable performance for the young enthusiast, who had already brought Japan the silver medal at the 2021 Worlds.
Momiji is not the youngest champion in history, however.
Although she won the gold medal at only 13 years and 331 days, the record for precocity has been held since 1936 by the American Marjorie Gestring, crowned in diving at 13 years and 267 days.