When 13-year-old professional skateboarding and surfing sensation Sky Brown was voted the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year in late 2021 \u2013 after being Great Britain\u2019s youngest Olympic medallist at the Tokyo Games wining skateboarding park Bronze \u2013 she shared an exciting Gold Medal ambition for Paris 2024 that could be transformative for British surfing and skateboarding: \u201cI want to get two Gold Medals in Paris, for Great Britain, in skateboarding and surfing.\u201d Sky is not a person to make empty promises. Taking gold at The World Skate Championships Olympic qualifying event in Sharjah, UA, she is fully aware of her potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Born in Miyazaki Japan and raised between the USA and Japan, with a British father and Japanese mother, Sky is a young woman of the world. So, it\u2019s a blessing for British actions sports that she has chosen to represent Team GB in her beloved board riding disciplines. With the opportunity to compete for a number of nations, Sky explained how it was \u201cthe more relaxed approach of the British Skateboarding Association\u201d that appealed to her free-spirited style. \u201cI begged my parents to let me go with Team GB,\u201d she said. Her dad Stuart added, \u201cWe chose Great Britain because we felt that there was no pressure and they didn\u2019t ask us to commit. They made it very clear that if she wasn\u2019t happy or wasn\u2019t feeling good at any time we could pull out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Action sports culture runs deep through the Brown family. Sky\u2019s dad Stuart is a long-time surfer and skater. \u201cHe built a backyard mini ramp in our place in California,\u201d said Sky, \u201cand skated everyday with his friends, and I would steal his board, which became my favourite toy when I was small.\u201d Sky\u2019s learning curve was remarkable. At age eight she was in the Vans US Open, the youngest skater ever to compete at the event. At 10 she signed a professional contract with Nike, again breaking records as their youngest athlete. And Sky\u2019s skate style oozes with maturity \u2013 smooth, flowing, powerful, all with expert timing born in the arcs and angles of surfing. The family normally surf dawn patrols on the Californian coast around Orange County. \u201cSurfing helps with my skating,\u201d says Sky. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty similar, so if the waves are good, I will surf for three to four hours.\u201d She combines home-schooling with two days each week in class, and skates every afternoon – usually at Prince Park in Oceanside or Poods in Encinitas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sky\u2019s fame skyrocketed after winning \u2018Dancing with the Stars Juniors\u2019 in 2018 (the US version of \u2018Strictly Come Dancing\u2019) – with US teen dancer JT Church. \u201cWe didn\u2019t really know what the show was about,\u201d said Stuart (after the show approached the family, having seen Sky\u2019s growing presence in the skateboarding world). \u201cMy wife and Sky started watching it on an iPad. I went to bed and when I woke up at 3am they were still watching it! Sky turned to me and said, \u2018Daddy, can I do this show?\u2019 She ended up turning down The X Games \u2013 something she\u2019d always wanted to do \u2013 to do Dancing with the Stars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was one of the most fun things I\u2019ve ever done because I\u2019m a girly girl and I got to dance and get my hair and makeup done,\u201d said Sky. Dancing on stage transferred to the concrete with rhythm and tempo becoming key features of Sky\u2019s skate park routines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite her age, she was heading into Tokyo as a medal contender, already the first female to land a frontside 540. Then, while skating on a mega ramp she fell 15 feet and suffered skull fractures (her helmet saving her life) and a broken wrist and hand. Four days later, knowing she would make a full recovery, she wanted to share the experience on social media:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeople might think I’m super girl or something, but I want to show sometimes you’re going to fall. I want to spread the message that it’s OK to fall sometimes, you are going to fall, all your heroes are going to fall. I wanted to show you’ve got to get back up and keep on going. Falling is part of life and that can’t stop what you’re doing. It was heavy for my parents, it was heavy for my family, but it made me stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think we showed everyone how beautiful skateboarding is. It\u2019s more of a family vibe, and we\u2019re always pushing each other to do more, to go further. I really hope I inspire some girls. Anyone can do skateboarding. You don\u2019t have to be of a certain height or a certain age \u2013 you can do it whenever you want. You\u2019ve just got to skate and go for it. I want to make Britain proud as much as I can, and I hope I did. And I want to inspire the world, especially little girls, and teach them that skateboarding is for everyone. I mean, if you believe in yourself, you can do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the obvious shared stoke among competitors at the Olympic skate park, what appears to fuel the competitive fire in Sky is the sibling rivalry she has with her younger brother Ocean, also a red hot skater and surfer. \u201cWe compete in everything,\u201d affirms Sky. They share a YouTube channel with a huge and growing fanbase. “I want to push boundaries, keep on improving, and try to close the gender gap as much as I can,\u201d says Sky, who fears losing to her brother above all else. \u201cI have so many dreams, but one now is to go to underprivileged places and teach kids to skate, because I feel like skateboarding \u2013 and other sports \u2013 helps people who are struggling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And it\u2019s the Olympic torch that remains so important for Sky\u2019s ever-hotter flame. With a cycle of Paris, Los Angeles and Brisbane coming up, Olympic performance could define her career in the way it did for snowboarder and three times Gold Medallist Shaun White. Sky repeats, \u201cMy next big dream is to go to the Olympics in Paris 2024 in skateboarding and surfing and hopefully to win two medals for Britain. That would be really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Teen skateboarding and surfing prodigy Sky Brown sets her sights on double gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5228,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-topics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n