Sky Brown facts for kids
Brown at the 2024 Summer Olympics
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | 7 July 2008 Miyazaki, Japan |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years active | 2016–present | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Japanese name | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kanji | ブラウン 澄海 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kana | ブラウン スカイ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | Great Britain | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Skateboarding | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Position | Goofy footed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rank | 4th (2024) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | Park | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Medal record
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sky Brown (スカイ・ブラウン, Sukai Buraun, born 7 July 2008) is an amazing British-Japanese skateboarder and surfer. She competes for Great Britain. Sky became the youngest professional skateboarder in the world. She also won the American TV show Dancing with the Stars: Juniors.
Sky represented Great Britain at the 2020 Summer Olympics. There, she won a bronze medal in the park event. This made her the youngest ever Olympic medalist for her country! She won another bronze medal in the same event at the 2024 Summer Olympics. Sky also won the 2023 World Skateboarding Championship.
Contents
Sky Brown's Early Life
Sky Brown was born in Miyazaki, Japan. Her mother, Mieko, is Japanese, and her father, Stuart, is British. She has a younger brother named Ocean Brown.
Sky's father lived in the United States before moving to Japan. Sky lives in Miyazaki, but she spends about half the year in the US. Her whole family loves skateboarding! Her preschool even had a skate park. She has a skating ramp in her own backyard because there are no skate parks nearby. Besides skateboarding, Sky also loves to surf.
Sky Brown's Amazing Career
Skateboarding Journey
Sky Brown doesn't have a skateboarding coach. Instead, she learns cool tricks from YouTube videos! Sometimes, she practices with Shaun White, a famous Olympic snowboarding champion.
Starting Competitions (2016–2017)
In 2016, when she was just 8 years old, Sky competed in the Vans US Open. This made her the youngest person ever to compete at that event. In 2017, she placed second in the Asian Continental Finals. She also finished in the top 10 at the 2018 Vans Park Series.
Becoming a Pro (2018)
In 2018, at only 10 years old, Sky became a professional athlete. This made her the youngest professional skateboarder in the world! That same year, she won the US TV show Dancing with the Stars: Juniors.
Joining Team GB (2019)
In February 2019, Sky won the Simple Session event in Tallinn, Estonia.
In March 2019, Sky announced she would compete for Great Britain. She had thought about competing for Japan before. She said she liked the "more relaxed approach" of the British Skateboarding Association. Sky was one of five British athletes who received money from UK Sport. This funding helped them try to qualify for the skateboarding events at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Skateboarding was included in the Olympics for the first time that year.
In 2019, Sky placed 3rd in the park event at the World Skateboarding Championship in São Paulo. She also became the first girl to land a frontside 540 trick at the X Games. She finished 5th at the X Games skateboarding event.
A Tough Fall (2020)
On May 28, 2020, while training in California, Sky had a very bad fall from a halfpipe ramp. She suffered several skull fractures and broke her left wrist and hand. She was taken to a hospital and was not responding when she arrived. Her father said she was "lucky to be alive." Sky herself said it was her worst fall ever. But she was still determined to push her limits and compete for gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
Olympic Bronze and X Games Gold (2021)
In July 2021, Sky won the X Games women's skateboarding park gold medal.
Sky represented Great Britain in skateboarding at the 2020 Summer Olympics in August 2021. These Games were delayed because of the pandemic. Sky was the youngest British Summer Olympian ever at 13 years old. She beat Margery Hinton, who was 13 years and 43 days old when she competed in swimming in 1928. Sky was not the youngest competitor at the Games overall. Syrian table tennis player Hend Zaza and Japanese skateboarder Cocona Hiraki were younger.
Sky won the bronze medal in the women's park skateboarding event at the 2020 Summer Olympics. This made her Great Britain’s youngest ever medal winner, at 13 years and 28 days old. She fell in her first two runs but scored 56.47 in her final try. Sky was not the youngest medalist at the Games, as 12-year-old Cocona Hiraki of Japan won silver in the same event.
Later in 2021, some of Sky's skateboards were chosen to be displayed at the new Young V&A museum in London.
World Champion (2022–2023)
In 2022, Sky won her X Games title again. She also won the Dew Tour event for the second year in a row. In 2023, she won the park event at the World Skateboarding Championship. This made her the first British skateboarding world champion!
Another Olympic Bronze (2024)
In June 2024, Sky qualified for the park event at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. She joined a team with 2022 British Champion Lola Tambling and 22-time Summer X Games medalist Andy Macdonald. This team was special because of the age difference between the skaters. Both Lola and Sky were 16, while Andy Macdonald was 51 years old when they competed.
Surfing Dreams
In April 2021, Sky said she was also thinking about trying to compete in surfing at the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics. However, she only ended up competing in skateboarding.
In March 2024, she competed at the 2024 ISA World Surfing Games in Puerto Rico. She hoped to qualify for surfing at the 2024 Summer Olympics, in addition to skateboarding. But she did not succeed after placing 3rd in her heat.
Awards and Recognition
On December 19, 2021, Sky won the 2021 BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award. She was also nominated for this award in 2022 and 2024. In April 2022, she won the Comeback of the Year award for 2021 at the Laureus World Sports Awards.
Sponsorships
In 2019, Sky became the youngest-ever athlete sponsored by Nike. She has been in a Nike campaign with famous athletes like Serena Williams and Simone Biles. She also gets support from Almost Skateboards and Skateistan.
Images for kids
-
A robot for kids
See also
