Sky Brown: 12-year-old skateboarder to make British Olympic history in Tokyo

Brown will be 13 years and 11 days old when she competes in the Japanese capital

Sky Brown is beyond stoked to become Great Britain’s youngest summer Olympian just a year after the crash that could have ended her life.

The skateboarding superstar turns 13 on 12 July, just over three weeks before she’ll make her Games debut at Ariake Urban Sports Park and ending swimmer Margery Hinton’s 93-year reign in the process.

It’s all a bit surreal for the pre-teen, who just received ‘four huge suitcases’ full of Team GB kit.

“It’s a crazy feeling,” said Brown. “It’s more than a dream come true. It’s insane. I’m so stoked and I’m going to try my best for Britain.”

Though foreign spectators won’t be allowed at these Games, the home crowd is sure to get behind the Brit who was born in Miyazaki to a British dad and Japanese mum.

She splits her time between Japan and the United States, where she’s also an avid surfer — and the winner of the TV competition Dancing With the Stars: Juniors.

Brown will compete in park, one of two featured disciplines in skateboarding and one of four sports making its Olympic debut in Japan.

Competitors are judged on the difficulty and originality of tricks performed in a bowl carved to resemble the empty pools of skateboarding’s DIY past.

In June 2020, the young athlete was airlifted to hospital after falling from 15 feet during training.

Brown’s numerous injuries included multiple skull fractures, a broken wrist and the black eye she showed off from her hospital bed in a motivating video posted to her YouTube channel, Sky & Ocean, that now has over 32,000,000 views.

“That was a pretty bad accident,” she casually confirmed. “I was knocked out for, like, 12-16 hours and it was a really bad time.

“I couldn’t see my brother the whole time, and only one of my parents could come in. But I recovered really fast, and getting back on the board I wasn’t scared. I just wanted to get back.”

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Brown responded with her best ever competition run, taking silver at the Dew Tour in May. She heads to Tokyo ranked third in the world.

The history-maker admitted she’s often one of the few girls at the skate park – but does see things rolling in a different direction.

“Now there’s more and more girls there, which is cool, but it’s usually mostly boys,” added Brown,whose trailblazing exploits will be broadcast live on Eurosport and discovery+.

“I feel like sometimes girls are scared to be the only girl and they’re scared to be, maybe like judged by the boys.

“But I feel like watching the Olympics, seeing how many girls are doing the sport and how good and how fun [skateboarding is].

“If they watch the Olympics, especially the girls, they’re going to really want to, which I’m really happy about.”

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Team GB Skateboarding Team Leader Darren Pearcy agreed.

Inspirational athletes like Brown and her teen GB teammate Bombette Martin, 14, he believes, could have a massive impact on the grassroots scene back home.

He said: “Hopefully when the world stage sees skateboarding, [we will see] an improvement in infrastructure and facilities.

“So we’ll see better skate parks in the country and more accessibility for kids to be able to reach [them].

“Opportunities, hopefully, will come.”

Stream every unmissable moment of Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 live on discovery+