A pair of teens took the Olympics by storm on Sunday in Tokyo. The Games mark the first time that skateboarding is being recognized as an Olympic sport and during the women's street event, Momiji Nishiya of Japan and Rayssa Leal of Brazil -- both just 13 -- earned medals in a dynamic showing for the sport.
Nishiya earned the gold medal while Leal took home silver. Nishiya used her final trick to leapfrog Leal with a score of 15.26. Leal finished with a score of 14.64, just behind Nishiya. They both were nearly the youngest medalists in Olympic history. Denmark's Inge Sorensen was 12 years and 24 days old when he earned a bronze medal in the 200-meter breaststroke in the 1936 Olympics.
Japan's Momiji Nishiya and Brazil's Rayssa Leal have two things in common:
— #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) July 26, 2021
They are both 13 years old and they are both Olympic medalists.#TokyoOlympics | #OlympicHERstory pic.twitter.com/uuMckwPLuS
Each participant had two 45-second runs and five individual tricks in which judges had an opportunity to grade. However, Nishiya was the only competitor that was able to land her final trick in the event.
"I'm very happy to make this dream come true," Leal said following the event. "It's a dream for my parents and it's a dream for me to be here at the Olympics. It's fantastic to represent Brazil and get this medal. I had great fun."
Leal introduced herself to the skateboarding world in 2015, when, while wearing a fairytale princess costume, she went viral for her skating prowess. Even skating legend Tony Hawk tweeted about her back then:
I don't know anything about this but it's awesome: a fairytale heelflip in Brazil by #RayssaLeal (via @oliverbarton) pic.twitter.com/uZgshHYMMT
— Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk) September 8, 2015
Six years later, Leal is an Olympic gold medalist.
With the street events in the books, the men's and women's park skateboarding events are next. They will take place on Aug. 4 and 5.
