Can you imagine being only a pre-teen and having the chance to make history by competing in the Olympics? Well, a pair of skateboarding phenoms are headed to Tokyo this summer to do just that.
Among the many young athletes around the world gearing up to compete in next month’s Olympics are Sky Brown and Kokona Hiraki. Representing Great Britain and Japan, respectively, these young girls are just two of the 80 talented skaters competing in the skateboarding event which is making its debut at the Olympics this year.
Ranked third and sixth in the world, Hiraki and Brown have a particularly good chance of getting on the podium and what’s even more impressive is they’re both just 12 years old.
Sky is now Great Britain’s youngest Summer Olympian. Figure skater, Cecilia Colledge, who competed at the 1932 Winter Olympics when she was 11 years old, remains Britain's youngest Olympian.
Meanwhile, like Sky, Hiraki will also represent her country and become Japan’s youngest Summer Olympian. Before her, it was 13-year-old swimmer, Yukari Takemoto, who competed in the 1968 Mexico Olympics.
If either Brown or Hiraki do win a medal, they’ll be the youngest Olympic medalist since 1936.