As skateboarding returns following its Olympic debut in Tokyo three years ago, the sport continues a surprising trend: teenagers continue to rule a vast majority of the field.
The youngest Olympian in Paris, Zheng Haohao of China, competed in the women’s skateboard park event at only 11 years old.
The medalists in both women’s events averaged 15 years of age.
These are both stark comparisons to the men’s competitions, in which 49-year-old South African Dallas Oberholzer and 51-year-old Andy Macdonald dropped in to compete.
Several athletes headed into Paris looking for redemption after falling short of their expectations at the last Games, leading to extremely fierce competitions in which the medalists were decided in only the final few runs.
Medal table
| Country | Gold- Silver- Bronze |
Total |
|---|---|---|
| Japan | 2 – 2 – 0 | 4 |
| Australia | 2 – 0 – 0 | 2 |
| United States of America | 0 – 2 – 1 | 3 |
| Brazil | 0 – 0 – 2 | 2 |
| Great Britain | 0 – 0 – 1 | 1 |
Women’s street
Teenagers ruled over the women’s skateboard street final.
World No. 1 and 2 Coco Yoshizawa and Liz Akama of Japan repeated their world ranking order on the Olympic podium. Both Japanese women earned the highest run scores, with Yoshizawa scoring 86.80 and 15-year-old Akama earning 89.26. Fourteen-year-old Yoshizawa was crowned the Olympic champion after performing a picturesque bigspin flip frontside boardslide, which scored a 96.49, the highest single trick score of the competition.
Brazilian Rayssa Leal struggled to put down a high-scoring run in the elimination round, but she came back with ferocity to land a cleaner run in the final to finish third.
Women’s skateboard street medalists
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