10-year-old Sky Brown Is on Her Way to Becoming Britain’s Youngest Summer Olympian

After taking the women?s Gold medal at the United Kingdom Skateboard Championships, Sky Brown is on her way to becoming Britain?s youngest summer Olympian. At only 10 years of age, the skating prodigy was up against 140 of the UK?s top skateboarders during the event. She is the first Olympic qualifier towards the road to next year?s Tokyo Games, being the first to feature the extreme sport.

“I feel like age doesn?t matter when it comes to sports. You can do anything you want, at any age you want,” said Brown, after a strong 33-point lead from second place. “Sometimes I just want to do what boys do and be better than myself.” After joining the UK Sport?s Aspiration Fund, which aims to help athletes qualify for the Games, she became one of just five skateboarders to benefit from their program.

Brown, who was born in Japan, will be 12 years old by the time the Games start in July 2020. This will have overtaken the previous record set by Margery Hinton, who was 13 years old when she competed in the swimming category at the Amsterdam Olympics in 1928.

To participate in the Tokyo 2020 Games, a skateboarder needs a rank within the top 20 in the world, which is then based on the points they scored throughout the qualification tournaments. The qualifiers have been arranged in two seasons, finishing on the 31st of May, 2020. These events include five-star events, tour events, national championships, continental championships, and world championships.

The International Olympic Committee has revamped the Games to appeal to younger audiences and has added five sports including skateboarding, surfing, and baseball to the program in Tokyo. ?I also want to try my luck at surfing for the Olympics since I love both so much”, said Brown, who also has her eye on the National Surfing Championships in Cornwall this May.

The Wisdom Segment

I Boxing is one of the oldest sports in the world, and the earliest depiction of it dates back to the 3rd millennium BC, found in Iraq in the form of a Sumerian sculpture. It was officially introduced to the world as a modern sport in 688 BC during the 23rd Olympiad in Greece.

II Sugar Ray Robinson killed Jimmy Doyle in a boxing match in 1947, describing the ordeal as a very trying experience. When he learned that Doyle had planned on buying a house for his mother out of his prize money, he donated his accumulated earnings from four matches to materialize that dream for the grieving woman.

III Muhammad Ali idolized Sugar Ray Robinson as a kid. One day he had the chance to ask him for an autograph, but the champion refused his humble request. Ali vowed never to do the same to his fans once he became a world champion himself, and he kept that childhood promise.

IV When Wilfredo Bentez from Puerto Rico beat Antonio Cervantes in March of 1976, he was only 17 years old. He secured the WBA super lightweight title in San Juan via a split decision and in doing so, became the youngest world champion ever. Bentez was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1996.

V No boxer in history has ever won five lineal championship titles across five different weight divisions other than Manny Pacquiao. He is also the only fighter to become a champion in eight divisions, having started his career as a flyweight. Pacquiao currently competes in the welterweight division.

VI Boxing is deemed more dangerous even than MMA, although the latter tends to be bloodier. Studies show that from 1998 to 2013, only four deaths have been linked to MMA, with fighters more likely to suffer minor injuries. However, from 1998 to 2011, there have been 60 deaths attributed to boxing.

10-year-old Sky Brown Is on Her Way to Becoming Britain’s Youngest Summer Olympian

The Wisdom Segment

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