The Tokyo Olympics proved that age is just a number, as many young athletes excelled at the biggest stage and won medals in this year's Summer Games. These young athletes bagged their medals via skateboarding, which debuted in the recently held Summer Games.
Young stars Kokona and Brown make history in Tokyo with medal wins
Kokona Hiraki made history in her home country of Japan as she became the youngest Japanese athlete to medal in the Olympics ever. Kokona accomplished that feat by winning the silver medal in the women's park skateboarding event at just 12 years and 343 days.
Kokona was influenced by her mother Minako's love for skateboarding as she started becoming active in the sport when she was only five years old. The young Olympic medalist, who is currently a middle-school student, became the youngest skateboarder to win a medal in the history of the X Games, capturing the silver in the 2019 edition in the United States.
Next on the list is the highly-popular Sky Brown. She made history in Tokyo by becoming the youngest Olympic medalist for Great Britain at 13 years and 28 days. She accomplished the feat when she took home the bronze medal in the women's park skateboarding event.
The British-Japanese skateboarder looked like she was headed for disappointment after failing to execute her patented kickflip indy tricks in her first two runs. Brown turned things around, however, on her final run, displaying her signature frontside 540 and a bunch of other leaning spins to post a score of 56.47 that was good enough for third place.
Like Kokona, Brown started skateboarding at a very young age as she took up the sport when she was just three years old. The 2021 X Games winner, who already has one million Instagram followers and holds lucrative endorsement deals with Barbie and Visa, among others, isn't resting on her laurels. She plans to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics and compete in two sports, namely skateboarding and surfing.
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Leal and Nishiya complete the list of youngest winners
Joining Brown and Kokona on this exclusive list is another skateboarder in Brazilian star Rayssa Leal. She became Brazil's youngest Olympic medalist in Tokyo when she won the silver in the women's street skateboarding event at just 13 years and 204 days.
Momiji Nishiya made history in Tokyo by becoming the youngest Japanese athlete to win a gold medal in the history of the Olympics. She took home the gold in the inaugural women's skateboarding street event at the age of 13 and 268 days, posting a score of 15.06 points in her final run. Nishiya broke the previous record set by Marjorie Gestring in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
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