<\/p>\n
Triumphant Japanese skater Momiji Nishiya was joined on the podium by Brazilian Rayssa Leal, while 16-year-old Funa Nakayama from Japan claimed bronze.<\/p>\n
At 13 years and 360 days old, Nishiya's win makes her the fourth youngest gold medallist in Olympic history. She sits behind only Marjorie Gestring (1936, USA, diving – 13 years and 268 days), Klaus Zerta (1960, Germany, rowing cox – 13 years and 283 days) and Fu Mingxia (1992, China, diving – 13 years and 345 days) in the record books.<\/p>\n
Nishiya's victory comes after another Japanese skater, Yuto Horigome, yesterday won the first-ever skateboarding competition at the Olympic Games<\/a>, taking gold in the men's street category in the city where he learned to skate as a kid.<\/p>\n In the women's street event, Nishiya's score of 15.26 was enough to edge out Leal (14.64) and Nakayama (14.49).<\/p>\n It was a tense finale, with Leal starting her last run and needing a big trick to get past Nishiya.<\/p>\n But she tumbled, meaning a no-score, and resulting in Nakayama being the only competitor with a chance to pip Nishiya after she improved her score in her final run.<\/p>\n But with the pressure right on, she too fell to ensure gold for Nishiya.<\/p>\n After decades in the shadows of men's skateboarding, the future for the sport's daring, trailblazing women suddenly looked brighter than ever in Tokyo.<\/p>\n The event was celebrated as a win for women by many of the 20 competitors.<\/p>\n The field included Leticia Bufoni of Brazil, whose board was snapped in two by her dad when she was a kid to try to stop her from skating. There was a Canadian, Annie Guglia, who didn't see any other girls skate during her first two years on her board.<\/p>\n And there were plenty of others for whom the Olympic competition felt like a light at the end of a long tunnel.<\/p>\n "It's going to change the whole game," US skater Mariah Duran said.<\/p>\n "This is like opening at least one door to, you know, many skaters who are having the conversations with their parents, who want to start skating.<\/p>\n "I'm not surprised if there's probably already like 500 girls getting a board today."<\/p>\n – additional reporting by AP<\/strong><\/p>\n For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n