Japan’s 13-Year-Old Momiji Nishiya Creats History, Becomes First Women’s Olympic Skateboard Champion

Tokyo: Japan’s Momiji Nishiya created history on Monday by becoming the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal in Skateboard Champion.

Nishiya has also become one of the youngest individual Olympic champions in history when she won the inaugural women’s skateboarding gold at the age of 13 years and 330 days.

Nishiya completed ahead of Brazil’s Rayssa Leal — who at 13 years and 203 days could have become the youngest ever individual Olympic champion — and Japan’s Funa Nakayama, 16.
Nishiya finished with a score of 15.26 to claim the gold. Leal took silver with 14.64 points and Nakayama claimed bronze with 14.49.

With skateboarding making its debut at the Tokyo Games, Nishiya is the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal in the sport.

She is also the youngest athlete to win an Olympic gold medal for Japan. The previous record was set by swimmer Kyoko Iwasaki at the Barcelona Games in 1992, when she became the youngest swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal, according to The Japan Times.