Brazil’s Rayssa Leal Claims Silver Medal at Tokyo Games

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2020 Tokyo Games

Rayssa Leal is livin’ a teenage dream…

The 13-year-old skateboarder, known as “A Fadinha do Skate“, which translates roughly to “The Skate Fairy,” has skated her way onto the medal stand at the 2020 Tokyo Games after the women’s street skateboarding competition.

Rayssa Leal

Leal was thisclose to taking home the gold medal before Japan’s Momiji Nishiya used her final trick to leapfrog Leal with a score of 15.26. Leal finished with a score of 14.64, just behind Nishiya, earning her the silver medal.

They both were nearly the youngest medalists in Olympic history. Denmark’s Inge Sorensen was 12 years and 24 days old when he earned a bronze medal in the 200-meter breaststroke in the 1936 Olympics.

Each competitor had two 45-second runs and five individual tricks in which judges had an opportunity to grade. However, Nishiya was the only competitor that was able to land her final trick in the event.

“I’m very happy to make this dream come true,” Leal said following the event. “It’s a dream for my parents and it’s a dream for me to be here at the Olympics. It’s fantastic to represent Brazil and get this medal. I had great fun.”

Leal introduced herself to the skateboarding world in 2015, when, while wearing a fairytale princess costume, the then 8-year-old went viral for her skating prowess. Even skating legend Tony Hawk tweeted about her back then:

Six years later, Leal is an Olympic silver medalist.

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