Thirteen-year-old Momiji Nishiya of Japan won the first Olympic skateboard competition for women on Monday, giving the host nation a sweep of golds in the street event after Yuto Horigome won the men’s competition, also the Olympics' first ever, the AP reports. Rayssa Leal, a Brazilian who is also 13, won the silver, her country’s second in skateboarding after Kelvin Hoefler of Brazil finished second on Sunday in the men’s event. The women’s bronze went to Funa Nakayama of Japan, while the men's bronze went to US skater Jagger Eaton.
Skateboarding’s Olympic debut delivered exactly what the Games’ organizers had hoped for: a high-adrenaline show of thrills and lots of spills from athletes plugged into younger audiences, the AP reports. The skaters reveled in the newfound prestige that the Games' spotlight brings to their counterculture activity, born in freewheeling California and now increasingly mainstream. “Hopefully, yes, after this, people will be more accepting to skateboarding in cities like Tokyo,” Nyjah Huston of the US, who finished seventh, said. "We are not out there trying to vandalize or trespass, or the way a lot of people see it. We are just out there doing our jobs, to be honest, and having an awesome time.”
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