Sky Brown targets LA28 history on the west coast; turns 20 during LA28

Sky Brown on growing up and the LA28 dual dream: ‘I hate not being the youngest anymore’ – exclusive

Five years on from Tokyo, Sky Brown targets more history at LA28 when she turns 20 on the west coast.

There is a paradox to the Olympic skateboarding podiums.

As skateboarding enters its third Olympic cycle, the most experienced and decorated skaters are also some of the youngest the Olympics has ever seen.

It has been exactly five years (4 August) since Sky Brown stepped on the Tokyo 2020 podium to become Team GB’s youngest Summer Games medallist at 13 years of age.

Now well into the LA28 qualification cycle, the two-time teenage Olympic medallist will turn 20 during the next Olympic Games.

“I still feel the same since Tokyo,” Brown tells Olympics.com , smiling.

" I’ve gotten older a bit, but my heart hasn’t changed . My attitude hasn’t changed. I’ve still got that fire in me, and it never gets old ."

Alongside Brown on the podium in Tokyo and Paris 2024 was Hiraki Cocona , aged just 12 in Tokyo, who became the youngest Olympic medallist since 1936. In the street event, Brazil’s two-time medallist Rayssa Leal , like Brown, only turned 18 this year .

With new names emerging from across the globe, including 16-year-old Arisa Trew , who won gold at Paris 2024, and 15-year-old stars Hasegawa Mizuho and Heili Sirvio who are gearing up for their first and second Games respectively - the teenage titans of women’s skateboarding like Leal, Hiraki and Brown are seen as seasoned veterans of the sport.

“Gosh, I hate it ,” Brown says.

“I hate not being the youngest. Even skating with older girls now, I just feel like I’m not the youngest anymore. It’s not as fun. I love being young, feisty, and getting in there.

“I’m always looking far ahead at what to do next. But sometimes I take a step back and look at what I’ve done, and it’s crazy. I’m super proud and thankful for everything that I’ve had.

" But in skateboarding, you’re never at the end of where you can be . That’s what keeps me going, I know I can still do more and more. I just want more, to grow more, push more boundaries, learn new tricks.”

Sky Brown: My heart hasn’t changed since Tokyo

Five years on from becoming Team GB’s youngest Olympic medallist, Sky Brown is on the road to her third Olympics before her 20th birthday.

Sky Brown proud of ‘being my own person’

In the opening skateboarding qualifier for LA28 at the WST World Cup in Rome , Brown was as calm and collected as ever.

Surrounded by her loyal team including her father and coach, Brown competed in the same event as her 15-year-old brother, Ocean , whose emergence on the scene in men’s park, which she describes as “making me feel extra old”, only hints at more promise for Team GB over the next Olympic cycles.

In Ostia, Rome, Brown barely put a foot wrong over the week. In the park final, she landed three consecutive runs over 90 points, before Mizuho snatched an incredible ‘Golden Run’ win to skate away with top spot as Brown claimed silver.

Brown has since scooped up two golds and a silver on the X Games calendar.

“I’ve definitely grown up a bit,” she reflects on her growth. “I learned I need to take care of my body a bit more than I used to. I’ve always had fun, but I think my mindset has grown into just going into it with nothing to lose now.

“Now I’m feeling really good, confident, and expressing myself in the best way possible. I’m being my own person and skating the way I want to skate. I’ve just been having such a blast.”

Sky Brown competes in the Women’s Skateboard Park final at the X Games in Sacramento, June 2026

For Brown and her brother Ocean, skating is almost a philosophy of style. The desire to win is as strong as the desire to win well.

“We want to really push style,” she tells Olympics.com . “We have our own little style, it’s very powerful. I see a bit of me in him, which is pretty crazy. He skates different from everyone else, and I love seeing that.”

A fashion and music fan, the confidence Brown gains from her interests radiates into the bowl.

“I go through phases,” she reflects on her routine. " Right before I drop in (to the bowl) is when I’m the most hyped up ; I’m thinking positive thoughts, whatever happens. Right now, I’m feeling as powerful as ever. I just want to put on a good show. I’m in my good outfit, all I’m thinking is ‘let’s put on a good show.’ Just fire it up.”

In Rome, Brown said she was in one of her favourite outfits for the day; designer jeans and a top. A few weeks later, she went viral at the X Games in New Orleans by taking top spot in glittery jeans.

“I’ve had a lot of finals days in my life,” she says. “I just make sure I eat good food, have good music and good vibes around me. My whole crew is so positive, always giving the glass half full outlook.”

“It’s a way of showing who you are”: Sky Brown, Arisa Trew, Rayssa Leal, and Bryce Wettstein on how they express themselves when skateboarding

Sky Brown on LA28: ‘The goals and dreams never end’

At Tokyo 2020, Brown lived up to the hype as the world’s youngest professional skateboarder, and the first woman to land a 540 in competition – a trick that is now commonplace in competition – while Paris 2024 cemented her status as one of the top stars of the sport.

In Los Angeles, where she lives between her native Miyazaki, Japan, and England, Brown is looking to write more history in her second decade.

She has described surfing, another love of hers, as ‘skateboarding on water.’

Before Paris 2024, she finished higher than any British surfer in history at ISA’s Surfing Games in Puerto Rico. Her result left her one place away from clinching a surfing quota spot at Paris 2024 .

In 2026, she’s increased the amount of skating and surfing in her globetrotting calendar.

The aim is clear: to become the first British athlete in more than a century to compete in two different sports at the same Summer Olympic Games .

“That’s a big goal I have for LA,” she says. " The goals and dreams never end ; I definitely want to achieve more in surfing than I have."

While simultaneously shredding the skateboarding – ‘surfing on concrete’ – circuit, she found time to win the Stab High Virginia Beach Pro Women’s division in May. Last week (28 July), she competed at the US Surfing Open as a wildcard.

“Skateboarding always has these ups and downs,” she continues. “Not every skate session is going to be as good, and that can get hard sometimes. I get really frustrated, really down and beat myself up sometimes. Surfing helps me with that.

“I take a break from skateboarding with surfing and surfing with skateboarding. I remind myself to take a break sometimes, because it makes me realise how much I miss it, and love it as well.”

Getty Images for MoonPay X Games Sacramento 2026

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