Sky Brown, the 13-year-old skateboarder who became Great Britain’s youngest Olympic medallist of all time at the Tokyo Games this summer, has been named on the three-strong shortlist for the BBC’s young sports personality of the year award. The other two candidates are the 18-year-old England footballer Jude Bellingham and the para-swimmer Ellie Challis, 17.
Brown claimed bronze in the women’s park skateboarding final at Tokyo at the age of 13 years and 28 days. The teenager had already broken Margery Hinton’s record, which had stood for 93 years, as the youngest athlete to represent Team GB at a summer Games. Brown, who has never had a professional coach and instead learns tricks from YouTube videos, also won gold in the women’s skateboard park event at the Summer X Games in California in July.
Bellingham established himself at senior level for club and country during a calendar year in which the Borussia Dortmund midfielder won the German Cup in May and was voted newcomer of the season by his fellow players. He was then included in Gareth Southgate’s England squad for Euro 2020, making three substitute appearances as they reached the final. In the first of those games, against Croatia at Wembley in June, he became the youngest Englishman to play at a major tournament, aged 17 years and 349 days.
Challis won silver at the Tokyo Paralympics in August, finishing second in the S3 women’s 50m backstroke event just two years after making her international debut at the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships. Challis was the only elite British female in her class in Tokyo and the only Briton, male or female, in the S1-S4 categories.
The diver Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix won the award in 2020. This year’s winner will be announced during the BBC Sports Personality of the Year show on Sunday.
