Sky Brown, the 11-year-old British skateboarding prodigy who is on track to become the youngest female to compete at the Summer Olympics in 50 years, won bronze at the world championships in Brazil on Saturday.
Japan’s Misugu Okamoto, who is 13, took first at the skateboarding park world championships in Sao Paolo with a score of 61.17, beating out countrywoman Sakura Yosozumi (60.00).
Brown, who topped the leaderboard after the first of four finals runs, posted her best tally in the final round with a score of 58.13 to reach the podium. While she’s yet to qualify for an Olympic spot for Tokyo where skateboarding will feature for the first time as a medal sport, it marked her best finish of the year as she appears well on her way.
Raised in Japan by a British father and Japanese mother, Brown is aiming to become the youngest female Olympian since Chinese ice dancer Liu Luyang in 1988 and the youngest female Summer Olympian since Puerto Rican swimmer Liana Vicens in 1968.
Shaun White, the three-time Olympic halfpipe snowboarding champion from the United States, finished 13th in semi-finals of the men’s park event, a setback in his attempt to qualify for Tokyo, where he would bid to become only the sixth athlete ever to win medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics.
With three other Americans advancing to Sunday’s finals, White currently would not rank highly enough to make the US team of no more than three men for the park skateboarding event.
