The skateboarding world champion is Nishiya.
On Monday, 13-year-old Japanese skateboarder Momiji Nishiya became the country’s youngest-ever Olympic gold medal winner after she completed the women’s street skateboarding category and nailed her final trick with a tear in her eye.
A. Nishimura Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
Nishiya won first place in a competition where all three medalists were teenagers. Rayssa Leal, the silver medalist from Brazil, is just 13 years old, and Funa Nakayama, the bronze medalist from Japan, is only 16 years old.
In doing so, she matched the feat of Japan’s Yuto Horigome, who on Sunday earned the first-ever skateboarding gold medal at the Olympics by taking first place in the men’s street event.
When Nishiya learned she had won gold, she was so overjoyed that she burst into tears.
Nishiya admitted she was “stressed out” after falling and missing important landings on her first two tricks, but the Japanese skater recovered to land her final three for a total score that surpassed that of Brazilian prodigy Leal.
Nishiya’s Japanese partner Aori Nishimura, 19, also surprised everyone by struggling in the finals and finishing last several times.
Nishimura’s father, Tetsuo, told Reuters that his daughter had damaged herself during Saturday’s practise and was confined to a wheelchair on Sunday night, the day after the heats. According to Worldskate, Nishimura is now ranked first.
Alexis Sablone, 34, from the United States, stated that the fact that five of the eight contestants in the final round were teenagers was more evidence that the industry was taking women skaters more seriously.
Sablone, who came in fourth, claimed that, for many years, female skaters were not afforded the same opportunities as their male counterparts in terms of rich sponsorship deals and celebrity status.
For a long time, Sablone said, “there were significantly less ladies doing this,” and it wasn’t until recently that “enough people paid attention, got enough eyes on it” to encourage more young women all around the world to take up skating.
“More power to them, it’s wild to see,” she added of her teenage competitors.
The Audience was Reduced to Tears and a sea of vacant Seats.
Due to anti-COVID-19 efforts, spectators were discouraged from attending the Games on Monday, thus athletes once again competed in front of empty stands without roars of encouragement from supporters when they landed difficult moves.
However, Leal of Brazil had the most enthusiastic fans in the finals because to the presence of seasoned veterans Pamela Rosa and Leticia Bufoni. After a failed trick temporarily erased the confidence Leal had showed in the preliminary rounds, they soothed her.
Leal brightened up by the end of the event and told reporters she was looking forward to a celebration back in Brazil with her pals.
There should be no gender barrier in sports, Leal replied when asked by a reporter how she would respond to individuals who say females can’t skate.
She went on to say that she had never been exposed to messaging along the lines of “hey you have to study, you can’t go skating because skating is for males,” adding that she believed it was wrong to do so.
Totally Agree that Skateboarding is open to all Ages and Skill Levels.
Bronze medalist Nakayama said she hoped the success of the Japanese skaters will inspire more young women to take up the sport. Nakayama is from Toyama, in central Japan, and used to travel the overnight bus to Tokyo solely to practise skating.
It would be more enjoyable if there were more competitors, she said.
