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Sky Brown defies injury to claim miraculous Olympics skateboarding bronze for Team GB
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It was resilience on a heroic scale. Sky Brown defied a dislocated shoulder – which popped out two hours before her women’s skateboarding park final – to secure an emotion-fuelled bronze for Britain. 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...#BBCOlympics #Olympics #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/YapTmx9VaD— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) August 6, 2024
“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 of fun times but I’m so happy to be back on the Olympic stage, having the crowd to cheer us on, hyping those girls on. Getting on the podium is sick.”
That the British-Japanese skater made the podium at all was simply remarkable given what had transpired earlier. During a two-hour window, Brown had to be patched back up and put together again in Humpty-Dumpty-esque fashion by Team GB doctors after injuring her shoulder during the preliminary round. She had already sealed her qualification for the final with a comfortable and clean first run, only to suffer a nasty fall on her third.
Skateboarding is an unforgiving sport and the extremes that these kids (the average age in the women’s competition was 16) push their bodies carries huge risk. After dislocating her shoulder the day before travelling to Paris last week, it was doubly unfortunate that Brown slipped off her board in the searing heat to land awkwardly and aggravate the injury when she unexpectedly crash-landed on the slope. Her father, Stu, who was watching from a corner of the park, rushed to her aid and plucked her out of the bowl.
“It was a weird feeling, I just felt groggy and sick,” said Brown, who was forced to water down her routine for the final. “I wanted to bring out another few tricks [for the final] but Dad didn’t want me to. We wanted to keep it a little safe, I didn’t want to hurt it anymore.”
Brown was visibly in pain when she faced reporters after her heat and held back the tears before traipsing off to the physio table. All thoughts of a medal at that point had all but vanished from her mind. The day had become more of a survival mission as she vowed to “push through” and compete in the final.
Brown has a track record of bouncing back from serious injuries in a high-adrenaline sport where athletes put their bodies on the line when performing flips and tricks. In 2020, she suffered a horror accident in training that led to her being airlifted to hospital with fractures to her skull, wrist and hand as well as lacerations to her heart and lungs. So to re-dislocate an already dislocated shoulder was, in the circumstances, bearable.
“She was in pain, but she didn’t want to show it too much because she was scared of being pulled [from the competition],” said Stu. “I said to her, ‘Just go and have fun and push as hard as you want to.’ Obviously, she pushes as hard as she does. Even if she didn’t get a medal, she would have been happy just to do her best.”
Brown did that and more. There was everything to play for after the reigning champion, Japan’s Sakura Yosozumi, failed to advance. She stepped up to lay down a confident first run, which she would continue polishing. In echoes of her memorable display three years ago in Tokyo she landed a kickflip indy – the notoriously difficult trick when the rider flips the board and catches it with their hand rather than the feet - to guarantee a place on the podium for the second time in as many Olympics. It was not quite good enough to topple Australia’s 14-year-old star Arisa Trew, but it felt damn good.
But for Brown, it’s never been about the tricks and flips. It has always been about inspiring young girls in a male-dominated sport and showing the world that the impossible is possible. “Since Tokyo, girl’s skateboarding has grown. We’ve still got some work to do but we’re definitely closing that gender gap. There’ll be more girls coming in for the next one.”
Brown already eyeing Los Angeles 2028
Brown, who splits her time between California and Japan, has already set her sights on competing in Los Angeles in four years’ time, where she will reopen her mission to compete in surfing and skateboarding. For a fleeting moment as she faced reporters afterwards, she reminded everyone of her tender age.
“I’ve got some school work to do,” she said, with deadpan innocence. “Being 16, now I can get my driver’s license in America now, so I’m still working on that. I really miss surfing right now so as soon as I get back I’m going to hop in the water and go on some surf trips.” At some point, she will also get her shoulder fixed, after which this steely competitor will be back, pushing her body even more.
Sky Brown claims bronze in women’s park final: As it happened
05:39 PM BST
Bronze brilliance from Sky Brown
05:29 PM BST
A reminder that...
Sky Brown came into today injured, having dislocated her shoulder in training. She then landed badly in the heats on that shoulder and vowed she would ‘fight on’. She did that and more to get her second bronze. No Team GB athlete has ever been younger when winning medals and now she has two of them - bravo.
05:21 PM BST
How it finished
Arisa Trew (AUS) 93.18
Kokana Hiraki (JPN) 92.63
Sky Brown (GBR) 92.31
Dora Varella (BRA) 89.14
Heili Sirvio (FIN) 88.89
Bryce Wettstein (USA) 88.12
Naia Laso (ESP) 86.28
Hinano Kusaki (JPN) 69.76
05:18 PM BST
Kokana Hiraki
Finishes her final run with a wall-bash...is that run enough of an up-grade to move her up?
Alas, for Sky Brown it is...she scores 92.63 meaning the Briton drops to bronze.
Arisa Trew of Australia wins the gold.
05:14 PM BST
Bryce Wettstein falls!
Meaning Sky Brown is guaranteed a bronze...
One to go...
05:14 PM BST
It was gold or bust
For Hinano Kusaki she gets in some big tricks but falls two-thirds of the way through. It’s only a 69.76...
Two to go...
05:11 PM BST
Sky Brown moves into silver
She goes straight into an invert, she gets speed and can go high with the alley-oop, there’s a frontside 50-50 in there as well. She makes the 360 at the end...
Is it enough? Not for gold, but it is for silver as she is awarded as 92.31!
Still three to go...
05:09 PM BST
Heili Sirvio
With a fine run 88.89. Sky Brown is still in third...
05:06 PM BST
Arisa Trew
Is third at the moment. Her third, and final round, sees her deliver an aerial 540, that will help her score well. The crowd goes wild at the end of her run. It was great and technically fine as well.
The judges score it as a 93.18 - the Australian moves into GOLD-medal position with five runs to go.
Will that be enough? We’re about to find out...
05:02 PM BST
After two (of three) runs
Kokana Hiraki 91.98
Sky Brown 91.60
Arisa Trew 90.11
Bryce Wettstein 88.12
Dora Varella 85.06
Heili Sirvio 71.56
Naia Laso 59.85
Hinano Kusaki 17.86
04:59 PM BST
Kokana Hiraki
Falls towards the end of her second run. She’s pushing hard and won’t improve on her first round score of 91.98
04:57 PM BST
Good news for Sky Brown
As Bryce Wettstein falls in her sceond run. The American is definitely a contender for a medal.
04:55 PM BST
Sky Brown’s second run
Starts with a backslide, there’s a good extended invert there, a good backtail, and backside alley-oop. That was a better run for her - will the judges agree?
Yes, they do 91.60! She moves into silver!
That was a huge run and exactly what she needed.
04:51 PM BST
Arisa Trew moves into silver
The Australian fell in her first run but, importantly, stays upright this time and nails it scoring 90.11. That pushes Sky Brown down to fifth.
04:49 PM BST
Dora Varella
Doesn’t improve on her first-run score...good news for Sky Brown.
04:49 PM BST
Good start from Sky
A brilliant first run from Sky. She nails all her tricks and performs a notoriously difficult ‘Indy’ over the volcano structure inside the bowl. She was in third with her score of 80.57 but Cocona Hiraki’s polished run and score of 91.98 pushes Brown out of the medal positions.
04:48 PM BST
All the first runs are done
Japan’s Kokona Hiraki is the last to go and she sees Wettstein’s score and raises it to...91.98. That is a mammoth score.
Kokana Hiraki 91.98
Bryce Wettstein 88.12
Dora Varella 85.06
Sky Brown 80.57
04:44 PM BST
American Bryce Wettstein
Goes well in her first run scoring 88.12. That is huge and is most definitively the early marker.
04:41 PM BST
Good, solid start for Sky Brown
She looks confident with no obvious sign of discomfort...she nails a jump over the rail. But after the beep she falls again on that arm - ouch...she gets up quickly, this time, though...she looks OK.
That was a good run, she coasted round there and the judges score it an 80.57...that’s good enough for silver at the moment.
04:38 PM BST
Heili Sirvio
Scores 71.40...she, too falls, but it’s late on in the run.
Now time for Sky Brown.
04:37 PM BST
Naia Laso from Spain
Falls on her first run, nerves getting the better of her? Possibly, but the tricks they’re trying to pull off do lend themselves to the odd fall...she’ll need to rely on her final two runs.
The same goes for Arisa Trew of Australia who falls early on in her initial run.
04:34 PM BST
They go in reverse order
So Brazil’s Dora Varella, who just got into the final, goes first.
She does well scoring a brilliant 85.06. A good barometer of how the judges are going to score.
04:31 PM BST
Good news on Brown
The eight finalists are warming up inside the park - including Sky Brown - who appears to be moving relatively well so far. She completes a clean practice run and then walks over to chat with her dad, Stu, who is watching on from a corner. If the teenager can defy her shoulder injury and land a medal it would be pretty sensational.
04:29 PM BST
From 22 athletes to eight
And they’ll have three 45-seconds runs with which to grab gold.
04:27 PM BST
Before the heats...
...Sky Brown said: “The level has changed so much, it’s so good to push each other, talking about new tricks. [I am] going to try and progress and go higher and make my skating more beautiful, I can’t wait to share [new moves] with you guys.”
To what extent she’ll be able to do that after the injury in her last run in the heats we’re about to find out.
04:14 PM BST
Sky Brown’s first run
Got her into this final, scoring 84.75.
03:51 PM BST
Sky Brown vows to ‘fight’ in final
Sky Brown vowed to push through the pain barrier after sustaining a new injury during qualifying for the women’s park skateboard final later on Tuesday at La Concorde.
The 16-year-old scored 84.75 on her first run which proved enough to get her through to the final in fourth place. But a heavy fall in the last of her three runs raised fears she wouldn’t be able to take her place among the last eight competitors.
Brown was helped from the bowl with an apparent right shoulder injury which is unconnected to the left shoulder she dislocated in training last month and which at one point put her second Olympics appearance in doubt.
However, while carefully nursing her injury and appearing close to tears, Brown insisted she’ll put her body on the line and try get a medal.
“It was scary falling and feeling it. Definitely it’s a little sore but I’m going to push through,” Brown said.
“I’m just going to fight through it for all the girls. It’s why I started competing and it’s why I wanted to be at the Olympics, to fight for them and show them they can do it too.
“It’s definitely a little sore, but I’m going to push through it. Having the crowd here hyping me up is going to fire me up.
“It means the world to be an inspiration for young girls. That’s why I started competing, that’s why I wanted to be in the Olympics, to really inspire those girls and show them that they can do it too. I was 13 at my first Olympics and it’s all because I believed in myself, pushed through and fought.”
Tokyo silver medallist Cocona Hiraki topped the qualifying standings with a score of 88.07, but defending champion Sakura Yosozumi missed out on the final by two places.
