Momiji Nishiya made history in Tokyo.
The 13-year-old won the Women’s skateboarding street competition on Monday, becoming the youngest Japanese Olympian in history to take home gold.
Nishiya is a couple of months older than Marjorie Gestring was when American diver won gold in 1936. Gestring was 13 years and 268 days old when she competed in the Berlin Olympics. Meanwhile, Nishiya is 13 years, 330 days.
“I welled up in tears because I was beyond happy,” Nishiya told Reuters of the historic event.
Nishiya wasn’t the only teenager on the podium on Monday. She was joined by Rayssa Leal, 13, and countrywoman Funa Nakayama, 16. Like Nishiya, Leal also became the youngest medal winner for Brazil, her home country. The trio made up the youngest podium in the history of the Games.
Nishiya finished with a score of 15.26 compared to 14.64 for Leal. The Brazilian was unsuccessful in her landing and fell off her board. Unfortunately, it was the slip-up that lost her the gold. Meanwhile, Nakayama scored a 14.49, good enough to beat out USA’s Alexis Sablone for bronze.
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Now, these young skaters want to see the sport — which made its Olympic at the 2020 Games — expand. They especially want more women to join.
“It’s not right to think, well you have to study, you can’t go skating because skating is for boys,” Leal said. “I think skateboarding is for everyone.”
“For a long time, there were way fewer females doing this,” Sablone said. “It’s taken until now for enough people to pay attention, to get enough eyes on it, to inspire more girls around the world to start skating.”
