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Watch: England’s Youngest Olympian Ever Has a Chance to Win Skateboarding Gold

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by Noelle Alejandra Salmi Jul 2, 2021

Sky Brown is about to make history. The skateboarder will be the youngest Olympian ever to represent Great Britain at a Summer Games, which begins in Tokyo on July 23.

The 12-year-old — who’s on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube — qualified through world rankings last month and will compete in the women’s park event.

During the event, Brown will be 11 days past her thirteenth birthday. That beats out Margery Hinton, who was 13 years and 44 days old when she swam for Great Britain at the Amsterdam Olympics nearly a century ago.

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Brown will also make history by competing in skateboarding’s debut as a Summer Olympic sport. It’s one of five sports that have been added to the Summer Games.

Brown may even set a record by winning. The daughter of a British father and Japanese mother who often trains in the US, she’s already won silver and bronze medals at previous world skateboarding championships. Her chances of taking home a medal are high, and Brown could even win gold.

One of Brown’s fellow athletes on Great Britain’s skateboarding team is also a teenager. British national champion skater Bombette Martin will be 14 at the Olympics. Brown and Martin have already inspired more girls to take up a sport that has, until recently, seemed very male-dominated, The Guardian reported.

While Brown will be the youngest Briton to compete in the Olympics, other countries are planning to send young athletes to the games, among them Syrian table tennis superstar Hend Zaza, who’s 11.

Many young Olympians have come before them, including 13- and 14-year-old swimmers and divers from Nepal, the US, and Japan. And while gymnast Nadia Komanici stunned the world by earning the first perfect score at the 1976 Montreal Games at the age of 14, gymnast Dimitrios Loundras competed in the first modern Olympics ever, held in his home country of Greece in 1896. He was 10.

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