13-year-old Japanese becomes first women’s Olympic skateboard champion

Japan's Momiji Nishiya celebrates after performing a trick during the skateboarding women's street final of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Ariake Sports Park in Tokyo on July 26, 2021

Momiji Nishiya is one of the youngest individual Olympic champions in history after her historic win at the inaugural skateboarding event

Photos by Jeff Pachoud/AFP

Japan’s Momiji Nishiya became one of the youngest individual Olympic champions in history when she won the inaugural women’s skateboarding gold at the age of 13 years and 330 days on Monday.

Nishiya finished ahead of Brazil’s Rayssa Leal—who at 13 years and 203 days could have become the youngest ever individual Olympic champion—and Japan’s Funa Nakayama, 16.

Nishiya starred in the tricks section to score 15.26 and give the hosts a clean sweep of the street discipline as skateboarding makes its Olympic debut. Her performance mirrored that of Japan teammate Yuto Horigome, who won the men’s title with a stunning sequence of tricks on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Filipino bet Margielyn Arda Didal placed seventh overall in her maiden Olympics

US diver Marjorie Gestring remains the youngest individual Olympic champion after winning the three-meter springboard at the 1936 Berlin Games at 13 years and 268 days.

Skaters each have two 45-second runs on the equipment and five shots at a one-off trick. Their best four scores out of the seven make up their final total.

Skateboarding is one of four sports making their debut in Tokyo, along with surfing, sport climbing, and karate as part of an attempt to bring the Olympics to younger audiences.