It was resilience on a heroic scale. Sky Brown defied a dislocated shoulder – which popped out hours before her skateboarding park final – to secure an emotion-fuelled bronze for Britain in the women’s park skateboarding final. No Team GB athlete has ever been younger winning medals and now the 16-year-old has two to her name.
Forget backside airs, nose grinds, frontside stalefishes and all the other mind-boggling moves us mere mortals fail to grasp in this thrill-seeking sport. All you need to know is that 16-year-old skateboarding sensation is as hard as nails. Brown left everything out on the bowls and slopes of the Place de la Concorde skate park, saving her best until last to land a massive score of 92.
31 on her third and final run. It would have been silver had Japan’s Kokona Hiraki – ranked number one in the world – had not pushed her down into the bronze medal position with one last sublime, daring effort. The result saw Brown match her performance three years ago in Tokyo, when she secured a valiant bronze after one gutsy final run.
Incredible Sky Brown!! 🤯 She's reclaimed the silver medal position with her final run! She'll now wait and hope she doesn't drop down the leaderboard...
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) “I feel like this made my story, just having really hard times,” said an elated Brown, who had previously fallen short in her aim of trying to represent Britain in both surfing and skateboarding in Paris. “Injuries, missing a surf event, lots.