The first-ever women's Olympic street skateboarding winner is also one of the youngest ever to take home a gold medal. In fact, none of the three winners on the podium were older than 16.
On Monday, 13-year-old Momiji Nishiya of Japan took home the gold medal in the new Olympic event by landing her final three tricks to big scores from the panel of judges. Nishiya edged out silver medalist Rayssa Leal, also 13, and her 16-year-old fellow countrywoman, Funa Nakayama, who finished third.
Nakayama led the field after the preliminaries, but Nishiya's stellar final round put her on top.
"I welled up in tears because I was beyond happy," Nishiya told Reuters after her win.
According to the Associated Press, Nishiya is the youngest Olympian to ever medal for Japan and Leal is the youngest Olympian to medal for Brazil.
CBS News reports that Nishiya is just a few months older than Marjorie Gestring was when she became the youngest gold medalist in Olympic history when she won the 1936 diving competition. Gestring was 13 years, 268 days when she won gold.
Skateboarding made its debut as an Olympic sport at the Tokyo Games. Japan also claimed gold in men's street skateboarding on Sunday.
There are two more skateboarding events on tap for the Tokyo Games — men's and women's park skateboarding.
