July 26, (THEWILL) – Japanese teenager Momiji Nishiya has won the first ever Olympic gold medal in women’s skateboarding to compliment the gold medal finish of her compatriot Yuto Horigome, who took first place in the men’s event Sunday for a double for the hosts of the 2021 Summer Olympics.
The race for the women’s gold came down to a battle of 13-year-olds as one 13-year-old, the winner Nishiya, was locked in a final showdown with another, Brazilian skateboarder Rayssa Leal, for gold on Monday morning for a truly beautiful outcome for street skating at the Olympics.
Going into the maiden event, expectations were high for Pamela Rosa, the 22-year-old Brazilian, who is the number one women’s street skater in World Skate’s official rankings. Rosa emerged as gold medalist in street skateboarding at the World Skateboarding Championship in 2019.
However, mirroring the men’s event where the overall best skateboarding champion heading into the Olympics, American skateboarding icon Nyjah Huston, turned out to be an Olympic flop, Rosa was unable to qualify for the final.
The Skateboarding champion suffered three falls in the best-trick portion, and the only two completed tricks she was able to muster were insufficient to propel her up the leaderboard. She placed 10th with a combined score of 10.06.
It was a similarly disappointing experience for the other medal hopeful, Leticia Bufoni, who came into the debut skateboarding event of the Olympics as the second-best favourite. In the end, however, Bufoni, the fourth-ranked street skater in the world, finished one position ahead of Rosa and missed out on the final completely.
The exit from contention of the highest ranking athletes, Rosa and Bufoni, left Brazil’s hopes for a medal in the event on Leal’s shoulders. It could have been to much for just any other teenager, but Leal was ready. Although she fell in the first round of her best trick, she executed it brilliantly the second time to set up a dramatic finale.
For the final round of the best trick stage, only 0.25 points stood between the top three skaters of Nishiya, Leal and another Japanese Funa Nakayama. But, since Leal and Nakayama failed to land a trick, Nishiya ultimately did need to do anything to secure gold. However, she still finished with a flourish to earn 3.43 points to her leading overall points.
The teenager, a native of the Japanese port city of Osaka, dominated best trick, meaning only the two teenager skaters, Nishiya and Leal, were able to hit three tricks, with the Japanese totalling 12.24 points from that segment of the event alone.
The decision of the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to add skateboarding to the offerings at the Olympics, was proven to be a wise one. The spectacle provided the sport an opportunity to showcase its best talent to an audience that may otherwise not watch the X Games or world championships with its fan exclusivity status.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
