Tokyo (AFP)

Integrated to give a facelift, the skateboard kept all its promises on Monday during the women's street event of the Olympics-2020 in Tokyo, with a podium of 14 years of average age, and a victory for the Japanese Momiji Nishiya, only 13 years old.

Nishiya became the first Olympic champion in the history of women's skateboarding as the practice, more cultural than sport, entered Japan as an additional sport.

The young girl from Osaka, who will celebrate her 14th birthday in a month (August 30), is not, however, the youngest champion in the history of the Olympics.

The precocity record has been held since 1936 by the American Marjorie Gestring, crowned in diving at 13 years and 267 days.

Brazilian Rayssa Leal almost broke the 85-year-old record.

But from the top of 13 years and 203 days, she hung the money, in front of another teenager, the Japanese Funa Nakayama (16 years).

The three medalists distinguished themselves in street, one of the two disciplines offered at the Olympics with the park (or bowl).

In street, the skater must string together very technical tricks (figures) on modules reminiscent of street furniture such as ramps.

The day before, skateboarding released its first Olympic 'tricks' with men's street, won by the Japanese Yuto Horigome - aged 22 - ahead of the Brazilian Kelvin Hoefler (28) and the American Jagger Eaton (20).

Of the eight finalists for girls, six were between 13 and 20 years old.

Only the American Alexis Sablone, fourth, acts as + granny + with her 34 years.

- Girls prodigies -

Girls have progressed enormously in their last years, worn by boys, more experienced than they now meet in skateparks, which grow all over the world.

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In the other Olympic event that is the park, this is even more true.

The Briton Sky Brown, a 13-year-old phenomenon, has just won the prestigious X Games - the benchmark competition in urban and extreme sports - by signing incredible aerial figures.

She will be competing at the Tokyo Games on Wednesday August 4, against several other young shoots.

In the street, Rayssa Leal is a prodigy and a star in her country, as the president of the Brazilian Skateboard Federation, Eduardo Musa, explained to AFP.

"How do you explain that a 7, 8 year old is able to throw tricks that even 28 or 25 year old guys can't do? It's a gift, she has something different," said the president, who has to deal with a child.

“I used to say that we have two teams from Brazil: we have the national team and we have Rayssa. Because the problem is his age. We have to take that as a difference. 'she is also a competitor,' he said.

The team has a psychologist, also attentive to the family, who lives in a poor area of ​​a densely populated city in northeastern Brazil (Imperatriz, State of Maranhão).

"Every day we make sure she's having fun. If this becomes work, there's something wrong. I repeat to her, if one day all of this is too much for you. , you have the right to say: bye bye ", assured Eduardo Musa.

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