By John Leicester - The Associated Press
On the Olympic podium,
three teenage girls -
two 13 and one 16 - with heavy
gold, silver and bronze medals
around their necks, celebrated the reward for performing a series of tricks with their skateboards that many boys their age only can see on Instagram.
After decades of being in the shadow of men's skateboarding, the future of women in this daring discipline looks brighter than ever after a vibrant display on a hot day in Tokyo.
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The
Japanese Momiji Nishiya gave the host country a gold medal in the street category
, after Yuto Horigome was proclaimed champion in the men's category.
Around the world, girls who want to convince their parents to let them maneuver their scooters can now point to the 13-year-old from Osaka as the Olympic role model for all that skateboarding has to offer.
Brazilian silver medal winner Rayssa Leal congratulates Japan's Momiji Nishiya after her triumph in the women's skateboarding final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on Monday, July 26, 2021.AP / Ben Curtis
In short -
"I'm delighted," she
said - Nishiya lets her board do the talking for her, climbing rails bigger than her.
The young woman said she was going to celebrate by asking her mother to cook her a yakiniku dinner, a Japanese barbecue.
The girls can also dream of imitating
Brazil's Rayssa Leal, also 13,
who took the
silver medal,
her country's second in the sport after Kelvin Hoefler's second-place finish in the men's final on Sunday.
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Both Nishiya and Leal became the youngest medalists in their countries.
The bronze
medal
went to the
Japanese Funa Nakayama.
"Now I can convince all my friends to go skateboarding with me everywhere with me
," Leal said.
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The Brazilian first captured the attention of the skateboarding world when, at the age of seven, she posted a video on Instagram in which she landed after jumping down three stairs, dressed in a suit with angel wings.
"Skateboarding is for everyone," he
said.
But that was not always the case for the girls, even for the 20 pioneers who competed for the railings, ramps and cornices of Ariake Urban Park.
Among the participants was the
Brazilian Leticia Bufoni
, whose
father tore her skateboard in two when she was a child
to prevent her from skating.
"I cried for hours," he recalled.
"I believed that girls should not skate because I had not seen a woman doing it," he said.
Bufoni joked that convincing his father to let him use a board was more difficult than qualifying for Tokyo.
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Canadian Annie Guglia said she never saw another girl skate during her first two years with a board.
He was 13 years old when he played his first competition.
It did not have a female category, so the organizers created one for her.
"And I won it, because I was the only one," said Guglia, 30.
"We have come a long way since then," he added.
Those who are dedicated to this sport predict that in the next Games in Paris 2024, women will be able to show off more talent and tricks after the experience in Tokyo.
"This is going to change everything,"
proclaimed the American Mariah Durán. "This is like opening at least one door for many skaters who are going to tell their parents that they want to start skateboarding," he warned.
"I would not be surprised if about 500 girls get a board today
,
" he
said.
