By all accounts, the trick that gained 14-year-old Coco Yoshizawa of Japan an Olympic gold medal in avenue skateboarding was a powerful one.
It’s referred to as the large spin flip frontside boardslide, and in it the skateboard rotates and flips each vertically and horizontally earlier than the skater lands on a rail after which slides down backwards. When she pulled it off in the course of the remaining spherical yesterday, she earned 96.49 out of a complete of 100 factors.
However what’s much more unbelievable is that Yoshizawa had been doing that very same trick at her native skatepark for years, not even realizing it was an Olympic caliber transfer that may win her a gold medal within the 2024 Paris Video games.
Yoshizawa has been skateboarding for half her life—based on Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, she adopted her older brother to the skatepark at age 7. There, she realized methods from an area trainer.
However her brother didn’t follow the game for lengthy, and Yoshizawa didn’t have a smartphone—her mother and father wouldn’t enable it till she reached junior excessive. As a result of she wasn’t plugged into skateboarding tradition on social media, she and her household had no thought how good she was.
That’s, till she watched the 2020 Tokyo Summer season Olympics. There, she noticed fellow Japanese skateboarder Momiji Nishiya—who was simply 13 on the time—win the first-ever Olympic gold medal within the sport with the exact same large spin flip frontside boardslide Yoshizawa had already mastered. “It was a shock, and for the primary time I assumed possibly I had an opportunity,” she advised NHK.
From there, Yoshizawa started competing in tournaments. She completed fifth on the 2023 World Championships in Tokyo, then earned a bronze medal in avenue skating on the 2024 World Skateboarding Tour Dubai. Within the first spherical of the Paris Olympic Qualifier Collection, held in Could in Shanghai, she took third; final month marked her first-ever victory, on the Olympic Qualifier Collection in Budapest.
Yoshizawa credit her swift enchancment with studying to concentrate on herself, reasonably than her rivals. “When the skater earlier than me succeeds in a trick and will get a excessive rating, I get the sensation that ‘I’ve to make it too,’ and I get anxious and make errors,” she advised NHK. “So I attempt to suppose ‘congratulations’ irrespective of who makes a transfer, and I am going into the competitors with the sensation that I’ll do what I can.”
That strategy paid off for her Sunday. Within the ladies’s avenue skateboarding remaining, rivals every did two runs of 45 seconds, adopted by a part of 5 methods. One of the best run of two earns every skater between 0 and 100 factors, as does every of their finest two methods, so their complete rating is between 0 and 300.
Heading into the trick part, Yoshizawa sat in sixth place. However for her fourth trick, she nailed the large spin flip frontside boardslide, securing her medal. (Watch it right here, on the 2:22 mark.) “I used to be not a lot pleased however relieved that I made it,” she stated afterward.
After she efficiently landed all her strikes, she raised her fingers in victory, having completed the competitors with 272.75 factors. The 2 different medalists have been additionally of their teenagers—her Japanese teammate Liz Akama, 15, gained silver with 265.95 factors, whereas 16-year-old Rayssa Leal of Brazil took dwelling bronze with a rating of 253.37.
Whereas she is aware of there could be different younger athletes impressed by her instance, identical to she was impressed by Nishiya, Yoshizawa plans to maintain skating for years to come back. “Skate boarders have a brief profession and the typical age is low, so I need to show that even adults can compete within the Olympics,” she advised Tokyo Weekender.
SELF is your one-click supply for all issues Summer season Olympics. Learn our newest protection of the Paris Video games right here.
Associated:
Get extra of SELF’s nice journalism delivered proper to your inbox—totally free.
Discussion about this post