(Reuters) – Teenager Sky Brown will be Britain’s youngest summer Olympian after she was named alongside Bombette Martin on Thursday as Team GB’s skateboarders at the Olympic Games in Tokyo this month.
Brown will be 13 years and 11 days old at the Olympics, breaking the record set by swimmer Margery Hinton who was 13 years and 44 days old at the 1928 Amsterdam Games. Figure skater Cecilia Colledge competed in the 1932 Winter Olympics aged 11.
Brown and Martin, 14, will compete in the skateboard park discipline after they qualified third and 18th, respectively, during the World Skate qualification season.
Brown won a silver medal at the Dew Tour, USA and placed third in the World Championships in Rio last season to rank third best in the world.
“It’s incredibly exciting to announce Sky and Bombette to Team GB for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games,” Team GB’s Chef de Mission Mark England said in a statement.
“Not only will they both make history as Team GB’s first ever skateboarders, but Sky will also make history of her own as she becomes our youngest ever summer Olympian.”
Brown suffered a horror injury in June last year when she fractured her skull and broke bones in her left hand after falling from a ramp during a training session in California.
She was taken by helicopter to the hospital where she underwent surgery and her father Stewart later said she was lucky to be alive.
The park event will be held from Aug. 4-5 at the Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Giles Elgood)
