Meet Sky Brown – 16-year-old British stakeboarding star chasing incredible gold at Paris 2024

TEAM GB Olympian Sky Brown stunned the world at the Tokyo Olympics.

And three years later she wants to do the same as she aims for a historic gold medal at the Paris Olympics.

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Sky Brown is aiming for a gold medal at Paris 2024[/caption]

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She became Team GB’s youngest-ever medal winner when she won bronze at Tokyo 2020[/caption]

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She was crowned skateboarding world champion in 2022[/caption]

But who is the teen sensation who has already wrote her name into the history books.

Who is Sky Brown?

Brown is a 16-year-old skateboarder who also has an interest in surfing.

She was born on July 7, 2008 in Miyazaki, Japan to Japanese mother, Mieko, and British father, Stuart.

Brown lives in Miyazaki but also spends around half of the year in the USA.

Her skateboarding skills have been known for some time, after she went viral when her father posted a video of her doing skateboarding tricks at the park aged just four.

And a decade later, she was competing at the Olympics doing what she loves best.

However, Brown does not have a coach to speak of, instead picking up her remarkable skills from YouTube videos.

Olympics and sporting record

Brown is Team GB‘s youngest Olympian for the Paris Games.

She previously competed for Team GB in the park event in Tokyo, winning a bronze medal aged just 13.

This remarkable achievement made her the youngest Brit to ever win an Olympic medal, surpassing a record held since 1928 by swimmer Margery Hinton.

Her medal-winning exploits landed her the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award.

Prior to the Olympics, Brown had also won bronze at the 2019 skateboarding world championships.

However, four years later in 2023 she managed to claim gold, a trick she is hoping to repeat in Paris on August 6 when the women’s park event final gets underway.

However, Brown has not had all fun and games throughout her career.

Just months before the Tokyo Olympics Brown suffered a life-threatening training injury when she plummeted 15 feet from a halfpipe ramp.

The fall resulted in multiple skull fractures, a broken left arm and lacerations to her heart and lungs.

Writing on Instagram at the time, her father said: “I held her in my arms, and she bled helplessly, moaning in and out of consciousness, waiting for the helicopter to take her to the hospital.

“We spent the night sick and terrified, not knowing if Sky was going to make it through the night, as the ICU team tried to get her conscious and kept her alive.”

Brown’s remarkable return saw her awarded the Comeback of the Year award for 2021 at the 2022 Laureus World Sports Awards.

In May this year, build-up to the Olympics saw her tear her medial collateral ligament.

While she is aiming for a gold in skateboarding, Brown also dreams of competing in surfing, but narrowly missed Team GB’s quota spot this time around.

Brown, who is now aiming to compete in two sports at the Los Angeles 2028 Games, told Olympics.com: “Life’s too short. You’ve got to try all different kinds of things, you know?”

She is a Nike sponsored athlete, which made her their youngest-sponsored athlete in the world when the deal was signed in 2021.

Brown also has a huge social media presence.

She has more than 1.3 million followers on Instagram, more than 2.2 million on TikTok and has racked up almost 100 million views on her YouTube channel.