Teenager Nishiya Momiji has managed to win the inaugural women’s street skateboarding gold medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Per BBC Sport, the 13-year-old topped the podium along with silver medal winner Rayssa Leal of Brazil, also 13, and Japanese bronze medal winner Funa Nakayama, 16.
This year's skateboarding was dominated by adolescents, with an average age of 14.5 for those on the podium.
Momiji won gold after attaining a score of 15.26. However, she is sadly a mere 63 days too old to have broken the record for youngest-ever Olympic champion.
That record is still held by Marjorie Gestring, who won the springboard title at the 1936 Berlin Games at the age of 13 years 267 days.
According to Athletics Weekly, skateboarding is one of four new sports added to the competitive roster at this year's Olympics, with the street courses emulating urban environments as the skaters perform tricks on benches, rails, and other obstacles.
Commenting on the recent inclusion of the sport, 24-year-old American skater Mariah Duran said, per The Sun: "It’s going to change the whole game.
"This is like opening at least one door to, you know, many skaters who are having the conversations with their parents, who want to start skating."
Duran added: "I’m not surprised if there’s probably already like 500 girls getting a board today."
Other sports include surfing, which will see competitors ride the waves at Tsurigasaki Beach on Japan’s Pacific coast, where the Brazilian and Australian teams are expected to be the strongest.
In addition to this, there will also be sport climbing and karate. The Tokyo Olympics will also see the reintroduction of softball and baseball - two sports that have not featured since 2008.
Spectators have been banned from the delayed 2020 Olympics due to COVID-19 fears in Japan. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced a national state of emergency running from July 12 and until August 22, in an attempt to curb the infection rate.
Per BBC News, president of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach stated: "Every decision has to respect the principle of safety first. I know that our Japanese partners and friends did not reach this conclusion lightly.
"We stand shoulder-to-shoulder at the side of our Japanese partners and friends, without any kind of reservation, to make the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 a great success."
