Skateboarding makes 2nd showing at the Olympics with young stars
A 12-year-old from Thailand and two 14-year-old Aussie stars are competing.
Skateboarding will make its return at the 2024 Paris Olympics, four years after the sport's debut at the Games and, this year, skateboarding is showcasing some of the games' youngest competitors as well as some celebrated veterans of the sport.
The sport's youthful trend continues from its debut four years ago. In the women's park event in Tokyo, Japan's Kokona Hiraki, then 12, won silver and Britain's Sky Brown, only 13, took the bronze. Both athletes are set to compete at this year's games.
The skateboarding events will take place on four separate days from July 27 to Aug. 7 at the Place de la Concorde in Paris.
Here's who to watch for this year:
Thai phenom makes debut
Thailand's Vareeraya Sukasem, only 12, will be among the youngest athletes competing at the Olympic Games this year. The preteen punched her ticket to the games after qualifying in women's street in Budapest last month.
Sukasem will face off in the street event against a talented slate of competitors including the top-ranked Chloe Covell, 14, of Australia and a pair of 15-year-old Japanese skaters, Liz Akama and Coco Yoshizawa.
She told the AFP earlier this month she only began skating around five years ago, when her mother took her to a skate park near her home in Bangkok.
"In Thailand, I didn't have many skateboarders as idols, so it was a chance to look up to skaters from Japan, China, and the U.S.," Sukasem told AFP about finding inspiration in her sport.
British trio form unlikely team
Sky Brown, who became Britain's youngest ever medalist in 2020 at 13-years-old, will return for the Paris Olympics this year. Joining her are 16-year-old Lola Tambling and 50-year-old Andy MacDonald.
MacDonald, who holds the record for most X Games medals in vert skateboarding, will be Britain's first ever male competitor in the sport at the Olympic Games.
Tambling is a decorated competitor who was crowned British National Champion in 2022 and finished sixth at the 2023 World Championships.
US fields powerhouse team
The United States will have 12 competitors in skateboarding at the Olympics in Paris, three for each event.
The team includes returning Olympians Jagger Eaton and Nyjah Huston in the street competition. Eaton won bronze in Tokyo, while Huston finished seventh that year. The 29-year-old Huston, who has won 11 X-Games street titles in his career, is a top contender for the gold.
On the women's side, a group of promising young competitors are making their first appearances at the Olympics: Ruby Lilley, 16, and Minna Stess, 18, will compete in the park event, while Paige Heyn, 16, makes her debut in the street event. Bryce Wettstein, 20, returns for the park event after finishing sixth in Tokyo and Mariah Duran, 27, will make her second showing in the street event after finishing 13th four years ago.
Aussie teen stars make waves
Expectations are high for Chloe Covell, the 14-year-old Australian star who became the youngest street skateboarding gold medalist in X Games history in 2023. Covell has also notched bronze and silver medals since making her X Games debut just two years ago.
She will compete in the park and street events in Paris.
"I'm definitely a little nervous because it's like the biggest stage, like the biggest competition," Covell told the Guardian Australia recently, adding that she fractured two fingers while training for the games in Los Angeles.
Also competing for Australia is 14-year-old Arisa Trew. During Tony Hawk's Vert Alert event last year in Salt Lake City, Trew became the first female skateboarder to land a 720 (two full rotations) in competition. In May, she became the first female skateboarder to land a 900 (two and a half rotations). She will compete in the park event in Paris.