Sky Brown becomes GB’s Youngest Olympic Medallist

Thirteen year old Sky Brown becomes Great Britain’s youngest Olympic medallist after winning bronze in skateboarding at Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Brown claimed Britain’s first ever medal in skateboarding. She finished with a score of 65.47 to make the podium, after falling on her first two runs in the women’s park skateboarding final. Aged just 13 years and 23 days, Brown is the country’s youngest competitor, breaking the record held by Margery Hinton for 93 years.

Team GB continued their success with Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre clinching gold in the 470 class sailing event, and medal wins in boxing. Mills is now the most successful female Olympic sailor ever following her gold in Rio 2016 and silver at London 2012.

Meanwhile, Great Britain’s impressive boxing campaign guarantees them six medals in Tokyo. Ben Whittaker took silver at the men’s light-heavyweight division and Frazer Clarke won the bronze medal in the men’s super-heavyweight. This is the most successful Olympics for Britain in the boxing ring since 1920.

It was a mixed start for world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson in the heptathlon, but she currently sits in third position after two events. The British athlete is back out competing in the shot put and 200m later on Wednesday. While a fourth place semi final finish was enough to see Andrew Pozzi through to Thursday’s men’s 110m hurdles final.

Elsewhere, the women’s hockey team’s reign as champions came to an end after a 5-1 defeat against the Netherlands in the semi final. They will now vie for bronze, playing whichever team loses in the Argentina and India match.

Making history

Previous record holder Hinton was 13 years and 44 days when she swam at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. But after nearly a century, her record s beaten. At 19 days younger than Hinton, Brown now has the accolade of Britain’s youngest ever competitor at a summer Olympics. Although the title of youngest ever British athlete to compete overall is figure skater Cecilia Colledge. She represented the nation at the age of 11 at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid in 1932.

Brown’ s women’s park skateboarding campaign started on Wednesday at Ariake Urban Sports Park. She qualified for the final, but tension ensued on her last run after she fell on her first two attempts. However, the teenager, born in Japan, persevered to climb her way to bronze. The top two positions went to Japan, with 19 year old Sakura Yosozumi taking gold and 12 year old Kokona Hiraki claiming silver.

Sky Brown is a fighter and true athlete, coming back after a heavy fall in training last year which broke her left arm and wrist, fractured her skull, and left lacerations on her lungs and heart.

“This is incredible. It feels unreal, I’m so happy to be here, I’m blessed,” says Brown, who now wants to just “hang out with friends and party”. She praises all of the girls competing, describing it as an “insane” and “super-sick final”. Her last run felt all the more better for making up for the previous falls.

Meanwhile, Alice Dearing made history as Britain’s first competing Olympic black swimmer.

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