Britain's Sky Brown executes a routine during the Tokyo Olympics skateboarding women's park final at Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo on Aug 4, 2021. [Photo/Agencies]

Not your average 'board' teenager, Britain's youngest Olympic medalist targets both a surfing and skateboarding gold

Britain's Olympic skateboarding bronze medalist Sky Brown has a training regime for the Games that means she wakes up early to surf, attends school and then goes skating in the evening.

"I am fifteen though, so I do like to hang out and play with my friends too, but I'm skating and surfing and having fun," she said.

Brown smiles brightly when she talks, and the joy the teenager has for her sports is clear. She is stronger now than when she won bronze in women's park, aged just 13, at the Tokyo 2020 Games, becoming Britain's youngest Olympic medalist in the process.

Last year, Brown became a world champion, claiming gold at park skateboarding in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.

However, when it comes to the Olympics, her lofty dreams have stayed much the same.

"I really want to get two golds," she says of her dream of topping the podium in both skating and surfing.

In March, at the ISA World Surfing Games in Puerto Rico, those dreams were cut short for Paris. She placed third in the sixth repechage, with the two spots at the Olympics going to China's Yang Siqi and Spain's Janire Gonzalez-Etxabarri.

Though Brown did not secure a place for surfing, she is first alternate for Britain's women's team. If someone gets injured or steps down, Sky would be the replacement.

"Maybe I get in, maybe I don't," she told Reuters, I'm so happy with where I'm at."

Brown will continue surfing and skating every day, as she says that is her lifestyle regardless of competition, "I love skating, I love surfing, it's just what I do," she says.

The teenager, who does not have a coach and maps out her own training, has no worries ahead of Paris. "I'm still young, I'm only fifteen, I have many Olympics ahead of me," she says.