Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="1250010" type="SPORT" weightage="60" keywordseo="skateboarding">Skateboarding</keyword> phenom <keyword id="11730831" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="kokona-hiraki">Kokona Hiraki</keyword>, 12, became the youngest Olympic medalist in 85 years.</li><li>Japan's Hiraki won silver in the women's park event, finishing behind her countrywoman Sakura Yosozumi.</li><li>Who runs the world? Girls.</li></ul>Skateboarding phenom Kokona Hiraki just became the youngest Olympic medalist in 85 years.Hiraki claimed the silver medal in the women's park competition, with Sakura Yosozumi, 19, winning the gold to provide a one-two finish for Japan at <a href="https://www.insider.com/category/tokyo-2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener">their own games in Tokyo</a>.Hiraki, seven years younger than Yosozumi, ran smoothly throughout Wednesday's final and <a href="https://www.insider.com/sky-brown-olympic-bronze-medal-adam-peaty-teenage-story-2021-8">beat British competitor Sky Brown, 13, into the bronze medal position.</a>Hiraki set a new domestic record as the youngest Japanese medalist of all time, smashing her fellow skateboarder Momiji Nishiya's previous record. Nishiya won gold aged 13 in the street event just a week ago.The 12-year-old also becomes the youngest medalist since 1936 when Inge Sorenson of Denmark won a bronze medal in the 200-meter breaststroke event at the Berlin Games."I don't really care about age," Hiraki told reporters, <a href="https://time.com/6087258/womens-park-skateboarding-japan-olympics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to Time</a>.Japan has dominated the skateboarding competition in its introduction to the Olympics. Yosozumi's success meant it collected its third gold medal in the sport."I'm really, really happy," Yosozumi said through tears, <a href="https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021/08/ae67aca35c05-breaking-news-sakura-yosozumi-wins-1st-olympic-skateboard-park-gold-for-japan.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kyodo News reports</a>. "I had trained so hard that I had no regrets, and I think that led to the result."Yuto Horigome won gold in the men's street event, and Nishiya claimed the women's street championship.Japan is currently third in the medal leaderboard with 20 golds at the Tokyo Games, behind the United States on 25 and China on 32.With seven silver medals and 12 bronze, Japan has won a total of 39 medals in all denominations.

12-year-old skateboarding prodigy Kokona Hiraki just became the youngest Olympic medalist in 85 years

<ul class="summary-list"><li>13-year-old <keyword id="9332229" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Sky-Brown">Sky Brown</keyword> became Great Britain's youngest ever Olympic medalist on Tuesday.</li><li>Now, athletes and fans are jokily sharing memories of what they were doing at Brown's tender age.</li><li>"When I was 13 I was in my room all day playing RuneScape," tweeted Team GB gold winner <keyword id="2446113" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Adam-Peaty">Adam Peaty</keyword>.</li></ul><a href="https://www.insider.com/tokyo-olympics-skateboarder-sky-brown-youngest-british-summer-olympian-2021-7">13-year-old Sky Brown</a> became Great Britain's youngest ever Olympic medalist on Tuesday when she won bronze in the women's park <keyword id="1250010" type="SPORT" weightage="60" keywordseo="skateboarding">skateboarding</keyword> final in Tokyo.Now, athletes and fans are jokily sharing memories of what they were doing at Brown's tender age.Spurred by a question posed on the BBC's live text feed of Olympic action, a number of prominent Brits shared their teenage experiences, including three-time Olympic gold medalist Adam Peaty.Peaty wrote on Twitter that he spent most of his formative years playing "Runescape" - a popular online role-playing game similar to World of Warcraft."When I was 13 I was in my room all day playing RuneScape (with a bit of swimming)," the Team GB star wrote. "This is a crazy achievement."Others to chime in included British actor and comedian Suzanna Kempner, BBC duo Claire Carter and Ben Shires, and Labour Member of Parliament Charlotte Nichols."Me at 14 still striving to be an Olympic gymnast even though I was absolutely dogs--- at it vs Sky Brown at 13 winning an Olympic bronze medal," tweeted Kempner alongside photos of her younger self and Brown.<a href="https://twitter.com/BenShires/status/1422835947905953793">Shires said</a> that at 13 years old he was "winning the treble on [soccer video game] Football Manager" <a href="https://twitter.com/Claire7Carter/status/1422828136522264577">while Carter said:</a> "At 13 I was finally allowed to get my ears pierced."Nichols tweeted: "At 13 I wasn't even particularly good at Tony Hawk's Pro-Skater 4 on Gamecube; this is an absolutely unbelievable achievement. Congratulations Sky Brown!"Brown, aged 13 years and 23 days, produced a brilliant final run to finish third in Tuesday's women's park final.In winning bronze, she replaced swimmer Sarah Hardcastle as Britain's youngest ever Olympic medalist. Hardcastle was 15 years and 113 days when she won silver and bronze at the 1984 Olympics in in Los Angeles."It was a super sick final," <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/58082535">Brown told BBC Sport after the event.</a> "All the girls were ripping it, it was insane."This is incredible - it feels unreal! I'm so happy to be here. I'm blessed. I was definitely bumped. I fell twice, that made the last run feel even better."Amazingly, however, Brown wasn't the youngest person on the podium.12-year-old Kokona Hiraki from Japan claimed silver, while compatriot Sakura Yosozumi, 19, won gold.In the two women's skateboarding events held at Tokyo so far, no medalist has been older than 20. During the street competition earlier in the games, <a href="https://www.insider.com/rayssa-leal-medal-winning-skater-spotted-tony-hawk-on-instagram-2021-7">the podium comprised 13-year-olds Momiji Nishiya and Rayssa Leal</a>, and 16-year-old Funa Nakayama.

Athletes and fans are jokily sharing what they were doing at 13 after a teenage phenom became one of the youngest Olympic medalists ever

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Young competitors swept the Olympic skateboarding events at the Tokyo games. </li><li>Experts told Insider that being young can be a significant advantage for skateboarding.</li><li>But as the <keyword id="6381828" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="sport">sport</keyword> becomes more competitive, this could all change, one expert said.</li></ul>At the Women's Park skateboarding champions at the Tokyo <keyword id="6360967" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="olympics">Olympics</keyword>, the podium was two teens and a 12-year-old.Bronze went to <a href="https://www.insider.com/sky-brown-olympic-bronze-medal-adam-peaty-teenage-story-2021-8">13-year-old Sky Brown of Great Britain</a>. Japan's Kokona Hiraki, 12, got silver and Sakura Yosozumi, 19, also of Japan, took gold. "Skateboarding is a great and strange and amazing sport," Neil Ellis, head of engagement for UK sporting body Skateboard GB, told Insider. The Tokyo games were the first time it has been an Olympic event."At the Olympics, the peak of a competitive skateboarding, you had people competing at the age of 12 competing, but you also had people at the age of 46."The success of young competitors in Tokyo is remarkable: here is a rundown of everyone under 20 who finished in the top 5 at an event:Men's park: Keegan Palmer, Australia, 19 - 1st Men's park, Kieran Woolley, Australia, 17 - 5thWomen's park: Sakura Yosozumi, Japan, 19 - 1st Women's park: Kokona Hiraki, Japan, 12 - 2nd Women's park: Sky Brown, Great Britain, 13 - 3rd Women's park: Misugu Okamoto, Japan, 15 - 4th Women's street: Momiji Nishiya, Japan, 13 - 1st Women's street: Rayssa Leal, Brazil, 13 - 2nd Women's street: Anup Soni, Japan, 16 - 3rd(No teens won big in the men's street event.)Insider spoke to experts about why this sport is well-suited to younger athletes who are still developing physically. Although it is an advantage now, one said that the sport could soon change to favor older skaters.<div type="image" title="Japan's Momiji Nishiya smiles after winning gold at Tokyo 2020." height="1790" width="2387" msid="85106592" hostid="261"></div><h2>Being smaller can be an advantage</h2>Having a smaller body can confer some physical advantages for a sport like skateboarding, said Anette (Peko) Hosoi, Associate Dean of the MIT School of Engineering and lead scientist on the MIT <keyword id="6356028" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="sports">Sports</keyword> Lab."For any tricks that require rotation, a more compact body will have a smaller moment of inertia," she told Insider.This basically means it requires less energy for them to spin."The classic example is a figure skater spinning. When their arms are out (so they're "bigger") they spin more slowly; when they bring their arms in, they reduce their moment of inertia and they spin faster," she said.The body's center of gravity is also closer to the board. "That definitely helps with spin tricks because you're close to the ground, you're close to your board," Ellis said. "But it isn't everything, because, with a lot of spin tricks, people will grab the board" to bring the center of gravity closer to the board and make the spin easier. As can be seen in Brown's routine below, rotation is a big part of skateboarding competitions.Phil Price, a lecturer in Strength and Conditions at St. Mary's University in London, who also coaches athletes, told Insider that a slim frame helps as well as being short.Think of comparing American football players to basketball players. Many football players have a wider rib cage and wider hips, which helps provide stability and that in turn helps developing force. Basketball players, on the other hand, tend to have narrow hips and rib cages. That helps with the rotation at the hips, which makes them be more springy and react quickly, he said.<div type="image" title="Keegan Palmer, performing a skateboarding trick" height="1333" width="1777" msid="85106595" hostid="261"></div><h2>Older athletes are stronger. That can be a blessing and a curse.</h2>According to Price, strength can be a limiting factor in a skill-based sport like skateboarding. "You need to be strong enough - and then anything above that could be detrimental to performance," he said.Because gravity plays a big part in the sport, and muscles are heavy, the strongest person won't necessarily be the best."Ultimately who makes it to the top? It isn't like all the stronger athletes are getting there or all the weaker athletes are getting there. It's how that athlete has the ability to find the way of performing that skill," he said, adding: "It's more of a problem-solving thing."Strength, however, gives you speed and height while jumping.To go faster, skateboarders can pump the skateboard, which is a way of accelerating without taking feet off the board, as can be seen in the video below (the relevant part starts at 1.08 minutes):"Being larger probably helps with this," Hosoi said.The stronger muscles you have, the higher you can go, said Ellis of Skateboard GB. "You will notice that with a lot of younger skaters, they will be able to get the nice 360 spins or the 540 spins," he said. But they lack the strength to get high enough for further rotations.<h2>Skateboarding lends itself to specializing early</h2>There is a reason why younger athletes tend to be found in certain sports, Price said. They are sports where athletes can specialize early."If the sport is very skillful and doesn't necessarily require a huge type of physical output for it to be able to perform those skills, then those skills can be learned earlier."In other sports that depend less on skill and more on power, like rugby or rowing, athletes have to develop their body before they can seriously start training.But for sports like rock climbing and gymnastics, the skills can be learned early, at four, five or six. "So by the time they're eight years old, they're incredibly competent. Give them another five, six years of practice, say that they're now 13, a bit like Sky [Brown], then all of a sudden they are at that elite level," Price said.Another reason for the success of younger athletes in women's skateboard could simply be cultural. Until recently, girls only started picking up skateboarding at around 13 or 14, <a href="https://inews.co.uk/sport/olympics/skateboarding-olympics-tokyo-2020-schedule-rules-team-gb-new-sport-sky-brown-bombette-martin-1107887" rel="nofollow sponsored">BBC commentator Ed Leigh told the i newspaper</a>. "So the skill acquisition process was taking longer," he said. "But girls have been starting to learn at four, five, six, the gender barrier has disappeared," Leigh said.Younger athletes can quickly pick up new skills, Ellis said, which could give an advantage to those who started younger."The likes of Sky Brown, for example, joined the GB team a couple of years ago...the amount she's progressed in those two years is absolutely phenomenal. Whereas myself, a 39-year-old skateboarder, I would see myself, like, getting worse in that two-year period," he said."Bombette Martin [who is 15] was another great example. She was almost unknown to the world about a year ago," he said. Martin was part of the UK's Women's park Olympics team this year.<div type="image" title="Kokona Hiraki doing a trick on a railing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics games" height="1325" width="1766" msid="85104824" hostid="261"></div><h2>Mindset is key, and younger athletes are less scared of getting hurt</h2>"There's a good saying: it doesn't matter how rich you are, you can't buy a trick, you have to pay with pain," Leigh, the BBC commentator, said.Falling is an essential part of skills acquisition in skateboarding, so being able to recover quickly is vital. Brown, the 13-year-old bronze medalist, had a terrible accident in 2020, leaving her with skull fractures, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/aug/04/sky-brown-olympic-medal-skateboard-bronze-2020">lacerated lungs, and a broken left arm.</a>"She is obviously someone with an excellent ability to avoid negative thoughts creeping in, to be able to get back to that level quickly," Price said. But beyond her natural ability, her youth probably also helped. Recovering from an injury well enough to be in a competing state is 50% physical and 50% mental, Price said. Athletes are distinguished by their ability to keep negative thoughts out of their head and focus on constructive thoughts like "I will not get injured again," Price said. <div type="image" title="Misugu Okamoto raises her hands while being carried on the shoulders of other skaters at the Tokyo Olympics" height="1333" width="1777" msid="85106600" hostid="261"></div><h2>Skating has great vibes, and competitors help each other</h2>Another factor that might have played in the success of those on the podium is that skateboarding is not a sport that is heavily driven by competition. "Every time I speak to a journalist, they're like always saying: 'can we speak to this person's coach... but in skateboarding generally, we don't have coaches," Ellis said. "In the US they do have coaches, but most people will just train with their friends."A big part of learning in skateboarding is just peer-to-peer, and so training with the frontrunners can be a huge advantage."The top three Japanese girls and Sky Brown all skate together. They hang out together in the US, Sky goes over to Japan and skates with them," he said."That helps them progress," he said<div type="image" title="Sky brown leans her head on Sakura Yosozumi as she holds her medal on the podium with Sakura Kokona Hiraki" height="1331" width="1780" msid="85104825" hostid="261"></div><h2>Elite contests could transform the sport</h2>Competition isn't a huge part of skateboarding. Early-specialization sports like skateboarding tend to be more about hanging out with friends than victory at all costs.What tends to happen as a sport becomes more popular is that <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> and money combine to optimize performance, Price said.With better funding, coaches can seek out advanced methods to better understand performance, and in turn lengthen the length of time their competitors stay on top.Price takes tennis as an example: in the 90s, younger athletes were winning grand slams. That was the case for likes of Boris Becker, who won at 17, and Martina Hingis, 15."Back in the day, people were: 'oh, you're 30. It's time to think about retiring the next few years'," Price said. But now elite tennis players compete well into their 30s."Will culture change, climbing or skateboarding the way it changed tennis, for example? It will be interesting to see where it goes."

Olympic skateboard medalists in Tokyo are as young as 12. Experts explain why youth is a huge advantage in the sport.

You Searched For "kokona hiraki" and got 3 results

12-year-old skateboarding prodigy Kokona Hiraki just became the youngest Olympic medalist in 85 years

Alan Dawson

Athletes and fans are jokily sharing what they were doing at 13 after a teenage phenom became one of the youngest Olympic medalists ever

Barnaby Lane

Olympic skateboard medalists in Tokyo are as young as 12. Experts explain why youth is a huge advantage in the sport.

Marianne Guenot

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides