Team GB’s Sky Brown, 13, plans to skateboard AND surf at Paris Olympics despite venues being 10,000 MILES apart
SUPER Sky Brown became Team GB’s youngest Olympic medallist – but plans to go one better at the next Games.
But the 13-year-old – winner of a brilliant bronze in Tokyo – plans to try SURFING in Tahiti at the Paris 2024 Games.
Brown is a mad-keen surfer and would consider doubling up in that and skateboarding despite the fact the two Olympic competitions will be 9,800 miles apart in three years’ time.
Asked about getting on the water, Brown said: “I really hope so. I’m definitely going to try surfing.”
Dad Stewart ‘Stu’ Brown said: “It’ll be up to her by then. She’ll be 16 and it’s hard enough now. It would mean going to Tahiti as well as Paris.
“She’s straight back to school now and we will do the things that families do. We’ll take her off social media for a little while.”
In March tThe International Olympic Committee executive board approved the proposal that the surfing can be held in Tahiti, an island in French Polynesia on the other side of the world from Paris.
Tahiti was chosen by Paris 2024 over other applicants Biarritz, Lacanau, Les Landes and La Torche, all part of mainland France.
Japan-born, US-based Brown finished third in the women’s park skateboarding contest at the Tokyo Olympics.
Yet 14 months ago she suffered a fractured skull and was ‘lucky to be alive’ after a horrific training crash.
Brown said: “I’m stoked. I can’t believe this.
“I didn’t know if I could skate because my parents were like, ‘Don’t skate anymore and do something else.’
“But I honestly feel the accident made me stronger. It was pretty bad.
“It was a hard time for my parents and a hard time for a lot of people and coming back and getting the bronze is really cool.
“I’m happy to be here. It’s insane to be on the podium. This medal feels unreal. It feels like a dream.
“I think more people are going to start skating now. After watching this, more people will want a go.
When I was 13 I was in my room all day playing RuneScape (with a bit of swimming). This is a crazy achievement, well done Sky!
Adam Peaty
“Skateboarding is a beautiful sport, there are no rules with it.”
Brown, whose dad is British and mum is Japanese, finished behind 19-year-old gold medallist Sakura Yosozumi and 12-year-old Kokona Hiraki – both from Japan – at the Ariake Urban Sports Park.
In the record books, she has overtaken silver medal-winning figure skater Cecilia Colledge, who turned 15 just a couple of months before the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Games.
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Her dad Stewart said: “Her grandparents were watching in the New Forest.
“She misses Japan, we have a home here and it’s really hard at the moment to get in and out. We having to deal with all that now.
“She’s always be around the sport, it’s always been a big part of her life and I used to skate.”
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