On Monday, a historic event took place at the Olympic Games: Japan’s Momiji Nishiya won the first-ever Olympic gold medal in women’s street skateboarding.
We should remember that this popular sport is making its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020.
The most impressive thing is that we are talking about a girl who is only 13 years old, which adds a lot of value to this feat.
Nishiya stood atop a youthful podium accompanied by Brazil’s Rayssa Leal (also 13) who took the bronze medal and Japan’s Funa Nakayama (16) who won the bronze medal.
The three medallists average 14 years and 191 days, making them the youngest individual podium finishers in the history of the Olympic Games.
While Nishiya’s achievement is impressive and admirable, she is not the youngest Olympic champion in history.
That honour belongs to Marjorie Gestring, who won the springboard title at the 1936 Berlin Games at the age of 13 years 267 days. The new Japanese hope is 63 days older.
Nishiya had a difficult start, as she stumbled and missed the landing on her first two attempts. However, her third attempt was sensational and she scored 15.26 to finish on top.
Japan has taken over the golds in the street event of skateboarding after 22-year-old Yuto Horigome won the men’s competition.
