Why Japan’s teenage girls are so good at skateboarding

CNN —

With the oldest average population in the world, squeaky clean city streets and something of a national reputation for adhering to the rules, Japan might not immediately leap out as a skater’s paradise.

But, as events this week in Paris have once again shown, when it comes to women’s skating, Japan’s teenage girls are on fire.

For the second consecutive Olympics, Team Japan dominated the street event – and it could do the same in the park category starting August 6.

Fourteen-year-old Coco Yoshizawa’s late surge helped her beat compatriot Liz Akama, 15, to the gold medal at La Concorde Urban Park, Paris on Sunday. The pair’s scores were head and shoulders above the rest.

“People in their teens can actually perform and achieve at such a high level in the Olympics and I think that’s wonderful,” Yoshizawa told AP after nailing a big rail trick that crowned her Olympic champion.

On Monday, 25-year-old men’s street sensation Yuto Horigame defended his Olympic crown with a near-perfect score, narrowly beating Americans Jagger Eaton and Nyjah Huston.

Horigame and Team Japan had long been touted as Paris Olympics favorites after the sport’s epic debut at their home Tokyo Games three years ago.

At the time, Momoji Nishiya, then 13 captivated the Japanese public as they watched her leapfrog her competitors to win the inaugural women’s street gold at the Ariake Urban Sports Park.

Sakura Yosozumi, then 19, and Kokona Hiraki, then 12, topped the 2021 Tokyo women’s park event. Great Britain’s Sky Brown, then 13, collected bronze. Brown is coincidentally half-Japanese. All three are competing in this year’s park event.

“Since there’s no age limit for skateboarding at the Olympics, any youngsters can compete,” Hiraki, the