Tokyo Olympics: GB skateboarder Sky Brown is ready to take on the world
At the age of 13, Sky Brown won the bronze medal in the women’s park skateboarding at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and became the youngest winner in the history of the British Summer Olympics.
Has her life changed forever? What made her an Olympic medalist at a young age?
In fact, Brown grew up under the attention of the media since he was a child, so he is no stranger to the spotlight.
The BBC hereby summarized 13 anecdotes about this “genius” girl’s path to becoming a talent, so that people can have a more comprehensive understanding of her.
Britain’s youngest Olympian and medalist
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Skye Brown
Brown represented the British team in the skateboarding competition and made history, becoming the youngest British player and breaking the 93-year record held by swimmer Margery Hinton.
Hinton was also 13 years old (13 years and 44 days) when he competed in Amsterdam in 1928, but Brown was 13 years and 28 days.
Not only that, Brown also won the bronze medal. Before that, the youngest British player to win a medal at the Summer Olympics was Sarah Hardcastle. She won the silver and bronze medals in swimming at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. She was only 15 years old.
Japanese-British
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Skye and his brother share a YouTube channel.
Brown’s mother is Japanese and his father is English. Father Stu immigrated to the United States when he was a teenager. But he and Skye’s mother Mieko (Mieko) met in Japan. Mieko and Skye were born in Japan, and their families, including Skye’s younger brother, currently live in Japan.
Skye likes skateboarding and has a family history, because his father Stu likes skateboarding and has participated in amateur contests in addition to marketing. Skye learned skateboarding from his father.
Shuttle between California, USA and Miyazaki, Japan
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With American skateboarding legend Tony Hawke
Brown first participated in the Olympic qualifiers in Long Beach, California, when she was only 10 years old.
Because she lives in Japan, it means she travels between California and Miyazaki.
Oceanside is her residence in the United States, about 56 kilometers from San Diego. But Japanese is her first mother tongue.
Fell seriously one year before the Olympics
Brown is one of the beneficiaries of the one-year postponement of the Tokyo Olympics. In May 2020, she suffered a fall during training, a fractured skull, fractured left arm and wrist, and tears in her heart and lungs. She was dying.
Her father Stu said at the time that Skye had the worst fall this time and was lucky to survive. He said Skye was very optimistic and strong. Her optimism shocked the entire medical team.
Skye also fell and broke her arm before participating in the Olympic qualifiers, but she won first place wearing a cast.
Self taught
When she was 4 years old, her father posted a video of her skateboarding on Facebook, and it went viral. But Brown has never had a professional coach.
She likes to watch skateboarding videos on YouTube, which lasts for a few hours, and then make her own videos and upload them to YouTube.
She has also worked with American skateboarding legend Tony Hawke, but not in an official capacity.
Social media “stars”
She has close to 1 million followers on Instagram. YouTube’s subscribers are also close to 300,000, and it is a small influence on social media.
She also shared a YouTube channel with her younger brother to record their lives and her Olympic journey.
His younger brother Ocean’s Instagram account is managed by his mother and has close to 200,000 followers.
Become a professional player at the age of ten and become Nike’s youngest athlete
Brown has multiple sponsorship contracts and was soon snatched away by sporting goods supplier Nike after turning to a professional player in 2018.
Since then, she has appeared in commercials alongside top sports stars Simone Biles and Serena Williams.
In an interview with The Guardian earlier this year, Brown said that he hopes to inspire other young girls by becoming the smallest skater in the Olympics.
Skateboarding to school is right
Due to her busy sports schedule and career, coupled with frequent travel, means that she can only go to school 2 days a week, and the rest is done online.
Her typical day consists of practicing 3 hours of skateboarding in various parks in Ocean Desai every day.
Ranked third in the world
Since winning the bronze medal at the Brazil World Skateboarding Championships in 2019, Brown has consolidated her position as the world‘s best skater and is currently ranked third in the world.
Completed difficult skateboarding moves at the age of 11
Before winning the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, Brown also showed a prominent figure in the annual X Games extreme sports.
In 2019, the 11-year-old Brown became the first female skateboarder to successfully complete a frontside 540 on X Games, spinning in the air for a half-round.
Surfer
Brown took full advantage of the favorable climate in California and often went surfing with his father and younger brother.
She often gets up at 5 o’clock in the morning and enjoys surfing.
Champion of the Junior Division of the U.S. “Dancing with the Stars” in 2018
Brown likes to sing and dance. In 2018, she participated in the American reality show “Dancing with the Stars: Juniors in 2018” competition.
She teamed up with professional player JT Church to win the championship.
Write a book, release a single
During the recovery period last year, Brown also released a single “Girl”, and also published a book called “Sky’s the Limit”.
The book’s promotional slogan is “The most logical quote from a young champion.”