--- title: "Rayssa Leal changed skateboarding in Paris 2024; TIME100 Sports list youngest and only Brazilian" sdDatePublished: "2026-07-28T13:13:00Z" source: "https://www.olympics.com/en/news/rayssa-leal-paris-2024-olympics-changed-her-skateboarding-la28-exclusive" topics: - name: "sport" identifier: "medtop:15000000" - name: "sport event" identifier: "medtop:20001108" - name: "sport achievement" identifier: "medtop:20001301" - name: "human interest" identifier: "medtop:08000000" locations: - "Tokyo" - "Brazil" - "Los Angeles" - "Affile" - "Maranhão" - "Île-de-France" --- Rayssa Leal changed skateboarding in Paris 2024; TIME100 Sports list youngest and only Brazilian Rayssa Leal on how Paris 2024 changed her skateboarding and LA28: "The show must go on” - exclusive Rayssa Leal on how Paris 2024 changed her skateboarding and LA28: "The show must go on” - exclusive Two years since a bronze in Paris, and two years out from LA28, Brazil’s Rayssa Leal discusses how the French capital changed the way she views skateboarding, and what her third Olympic cycle in her teenage years means. It has been exactly two years since Rayssa Leal revealed a different side of herself on skateboarding's biggest stage. She arrived at Paris 2024 as a 16-year-old, the inaugural Olympic silver medallist in skateboarding from Tokyo 2020 . But the fame she possessed came from online virality before her sport was in the Olympics. Nine years prior, an infamous video of seven-year-old Leal, sweetly dressed in a tutu and fairy wings, heel-flipping off a curb on the streets of Maranhão, Brazil, was shared by Tony Hawk and seen by millions. By the time she reached her teens, stardom had already been a constant companion. Paris marked a new chapter for the Brazilian. No longer the fearless child prodigy, Leal arrived almost as a veteran figure of the sport, expected to deliver another Olympic medal. For the first time, expectation weighed as heavily as possibility. “Paris was crazy,” Leal recalled two years on to Olympics.com. “The crowd was amazing, but there was so much screaming. I was so nervous. “ I felt a lot of pressure to skate lighter, more beautiful .” She came seventh in the semi-final to reach the final, with repeated falls capping her scores. She had shown herself errant, human. Before the final leg of best trick attempts, Leal had failed to land a run. Leal sat fifth in the leaderboard. It took her last card in Paris, a perfectly landed, unmatchable kickflip Smith grind, to bump her to third place. In a sea of Brazilian flags, the relief was palpable. Rayssa Leal: I have the maturity to understand that only by having fun can I reach unimaginable places Two years on, Brazil’s teenage two-time Olympic medallist talks to Olympics.com about how her bronze in Paris 2024 changed her perspective on skateboarding ahead of LA28. The growth of Rayssa Leal on and off the board From the child in Tokyo to the 16-year-old handling a world of pressure in Paris, Imperatriz’s ‘ Fadinha ’ (‘Little Fairy’) will be 20 years old at her third Olympic Games if she makes it to LA28. That is the age when most athletes dream of getting started. As the Games head to the home of Hollywood, what would Leal title the third edition? “‘ The show must go on ’,” she smiled as she spoke to Olympics.com in Rome during the WST World Cup, the first of the qualifying events for LA28. A few days later, she claimed bronze in the street final. Viewership of the live broadcast quadrupled during her runs. “After Tokyo, after Paris; when I go to LA I’ll be 20. That’s two more years to grow, to learn new tricks, and develop emotionally, too. “It’s really important for my generation; we’ll be at the back in the future. And I want to be in two or three more (Olympics), so I want to leave everything out there.” Leal’s growth outside her sport has mirrored that within it. Off the board, she attends therapy three times a week to find calm. In competitions, she has morphed into one of the most composed and consistent forces on the circuit. “Paris changed the way I viewed skateboarding as being an expression ,” Leal reflected. “After the pressure, I learned it wasn't only about that, but to have fun . Today, I can have the maturity to understand that if I am having fun, I can reach unimaginable places . “I love skateboarding because I feel free . I can handle bad things. Sometimes if I’m not feeling so good, I get on the board and the feeling goes away. I can be myself . I can have fun, laugh, fall, get up, continue. I activate my creative side . “Now I feel fine to skate, and I feel like that was part of a very big growth. That's when I started to love skateboarding and skateboarding loved me back .” For Leal, the craziness hasn’t ceased since Paris. Instead, her celebrity has only accelerated. This year, after zipping between Los Angeles to train and Brazil for studies, she graduated from high school . She fronted the cover of Rolling Stone Brazil magazine after turning 18, posing in a designer car with a freshly printed driver’s license. And days before the LA28 qualifying campaign kicked off in Rome, she was announced in the first edition of the TIME100 Sports list , dedicated to the most influential sportspeople in the world. She was the youngest name and the only Brazilian .