Japan's Momiji Nishiya has won a gold medal at Olympics' first-ever women's skateboarding event. Nishiya, 13, made history becoming the first women's Olympic Skateboarding champion. She's one of the youngest ever to win in the Games' long history after US diver Marjorie Gestring, who remains the youngest individual Olympic champion after winning the 3m springboard at the 1936 Berlin Games. Gestring was 13 years and 268 days old at the time.
Nishiya's fellow competitor Brazil's Rayssa Leal, who is 13 years and 203 days old, bagged the silver medal in the same event category in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Both Nishiya and Leal are among the youngest participants in the Olympics this year. Nishiya featured in the tricks section to pile up big scores finishing with 15.26 points and give the hosts a clean sweep of the street discipline as the skateboarding event makes its entry into Olympics.
Her performance reflected that of Japan teammate Yuto Horigome, winner of the men's title who performed a stunning sequence of tricks at the event held on July 25. While Nishiya bagged gold, Leal had a good chance to have also become the youngest ever individual Olympic champion.
The competition was judged based on the two 45-second runs of participants on the equipment each of them was given and five shots at a one-off trick. The final result was announced based on, the competitors' best four scores out of the seven.
Skateboarding made its debut in this year's international multi-sport event among several other sports. It is one of the four sports making its debut in this year's Tokyo Olympics and surfing, sport climbing, and karate as an initiative for inclusion of younger audiences in the Olympics.
Both the teenagers were allowed to be accompanied by their mothers with special exceptions to the ban on fans and family at the Olympics. On winning the competition, both Nishiya and Leal held their gold medals at the Olympic podium and gazed at the cameras with smiles and giggles.
"I want to go back to being the little girl I am," Leal said in Portuguese and further added "I don't want to have responsibility. I want to go on being the lively little girl I am for all of Brazil," according to the WP.
Who is Momiji Nishiya?
Skateboarding sensation Momiji Nishiya is the youngest gold medallist from Japan as she won the women's street skateboarding event at the Ariake Urban Sports Park in the 2020 Olympics.
