Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:05 Not many people can say they took part in the Olympics at the age of 13. An even smaller number can say that they won an Olympic medal at that age, but our guest can. Sky Brown is only 14 years old and her list of achievements is already remarkable. In the 2020 summer Olympics, Skye sees the bronze medal in the park event making her great Britain's youngest ever medalist. Skye also took gold at the prestigious X Games twice and her talents don't stop There. Sky's a skilled surfer. She's considered competing with the GB Olympic team. Over the past two years, Skye has skateboarded to all kinds of new heights. She won the 2021 B BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year Award and quickly followed that up by winning 2020 twos Comeback of the Year Award at the Glorious World Sports Awards. Even though she's done so much in such a short time, Skye continues to confound expectations and we're so happy to have her here with us on the edge. We talked about Sky's love for skateboarding, her experience at the Olympics, and how she's preparing for future challenges. I'm Teo Vanden brca, welcome to the Edge, A podcast by tag Hoyer.
Speaker 1 00:01:22 We started the interview by talking about the joys of skateboarding. Here's what sky had to say.
Speaker 2 00:01:34 Skateboarding. There's this like really cool feeling when you're on it. When you're on this board, you're on it. You can do anything you want. There's no rules to it. There's no limit. You're just go on and get speed and go high and it's just such a fun thing that you have to do any LA and yeah, it's amazing. Scary. It's definitely scary. You gotta commit and definitely be brave. You like, you know like when you drop in, when you're landing your first shake, you're gonna fall. I mean you probably, I don't know, you might fall and you just, I don't know. When you're on the board you just like dropping in. That's like the first thing, one of the first shakes. People learn and you go on the edge of the ramp and then you push the board down and stomp it down as hard as you can. So don't feel bath Ken. It definitely take, I don't know, it definitely takes a lot of commitment, especially going high. Like you don't know what's gonna happen, like you honestly don't know what's gonna happen when you're gonna land. So Jenna takes a lot of commitment and great greedy.
Speaker 2 00:02:40 I don't think you have to start young that there's a lot of amazing scandals that started later and you know, there's a lot of old skaters right now too. It's just skateboarding you. It's all about being brave and being confident and putting time into it. It's, you are not gonna learn. It's hard so that you can't learn it it fast. You have to take baby steps and take it slow. But I definitely think anyone can learn at any age. There's really no limit for it.
Speaker 2 00:03:10 At the Olympics 2021 Summer Tokyo, it was amazing. The day of their Olympics was very crazy. Going up to the park in the morning and practicing with everyone there, we were all like give a little nervous and really excited and also like it was definitely very nerve-wracking and but it was so sick. Like Spain was my best. Really good friends. They're skating with them. Being in Olympics with them and getting on the podium with their was amazing. I don't know, I remember getting ready in the morning and like was like talking about it and thinking about it the whole time. I was like, oh my gosh, like I can't believe it. I'm here. And that was definitely really, I don't know, it was exciting. I don't know, I'm just so excited.
Speaker 2 00:04:07 I fell, I fell twice and that was very hard because I don't know. And we have day runs and when you fall on your first two and you have one more red and let, if you fall again, then it's like, oh, but you know, I had one more chance left and I just got a big fire felt and felt a big fire and my friends and my dad were like, you know my dad, well my dad said, you got it. No competence will define you. And yeah, that really just gave me a boost. And yeah, I went, did my last stroke. I let it, it made it feel so much better landing the last one after falling twice. And I remember getting on the podium for five like good friends and it was amazing. We cried so much after, but hard to explain. But it was very amazing.
Speaker 2 00:05:06 My mind before I drop in or when I'm doing the run honestly before is way more like scary in and actually being in the ball. Like about to sit, like when you're about to drop in, you just think about, oh, think about everything you're doing and like, oh I hope I don't mess up there. Hope I don't fall there. I hope we don't overdo that or mess that up. But like when you're in the bowl, like your life driving is definitely quite nervous cuz you don't know why you're gonna mess up. But when you're in the ball it's so, it's just you're skinny. It feels like you're just skating mad just in a park alone and you know, just in the zone and like doing all your tricks. It's definitely very like flowy. I just go up to the one, I already know what I'm doing cuz I've done that around many times and I, you know, I know what I'm doing and I, I just trust that and I just go and just, you know, let the board take me and let the bull take me. And I like to explain, it's really like a dance, you know, you do these a bunch of tweaks and these like pretty moves and you know, it's just like a blowy dance and that's how I like to explain it. And yeah, it's, sorry. It's really fun once you're in it. I don't know, it's definitely nervous when you're out though. <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:06:28 I didn't really know if I won the bronze yet. When I, after I did my run, I, you know, I was waiting for the score and then the score came and then I went up to third and then I also had this other girl behind me. She's amazing like, like so good and she, if she landed her run like I don't know what would've happened but um, yeah she fell on her trick and then, yeah, I realized I won. That one was crazy too, but I felt so bad for the girl cause that the girl that she, she went to fourth and I know she was really amazing and yeah, I felt really bad for her but those was so stoked at the same time. So I bit of like a weird time. But yeah, it was,
Speaker 2 00:07:17 I got on the podium, I like the, she, I was like, I couldn't believe it. Like I thought it was a dream like ooh. I just, I remember like jumping onto my dad and my dad was like, holy me. We were both crying and then the scared like the people on point with kids and we were all crying again. Yeah, an amazing moment and like that was an the best feeling ever and I wanna feel bad again and stop feeling when you, you know, then you realize you have to po one ready do your good run and oh she's the best feeling and yeah, Jacque wanna be, keep feeling that again. So honestly the best feeling like learning a new chick with skateboarding, like that's the feeling I wanna feel. I also, it's amazing.
Speaker 2 00:08:12 Oh we went like on the grass like right next to like the Olympic sign and kind of just played around at, had like a fun night with she, the team gave us, it was, it was really nice. Uh, we were there with Japan and Brazil and we saw like having like talking, it was a crazy night. I honestly still couldn't believe it then. Like I honestly still couldn't believe in it. So being like one of the youngest in, theres honestly so fun for Aans. I used to like show up a little and show off and tell, you know, show, tell them what's up then. Yeah, I don't know. I like being the little one in there. It just makes me wanna like poop to them that I got it. You know, advice don't give to young athletes is, you know, it's a long journey. Don't rush it. Take baby steps and enjoy it. Really just try to enjoy the journey cuz it is a fun one and you know, it's, it's long sometimes, but you know, it's the best part is the journey and just enjoy that and never give up to female athletes. My advice would be, you know, you're probably, uh, like what am I doing here? You know, all the boys are out there and I don't belong here, but you know, why do boys get to have all the fun? We just gotta get out there and show them what's up and show them that the girls got in it. And yeah, I definitely, I, my advice would be just to get out there, don't let anyone stop you. Don't, don't let them like underestimate you. Just go and prove them wrong.
Speaker 1 00:09:58 What do you have coming up that you're most looking forward to? What's next for Sky Brown?
Speaker 2 00:10:03 Next for me is I have, I'm about to go on a surf ship at and after here. I'm really excited. I'm gonna try to get some clips on the surfboard and then I'm gonna come back to here Sja Dubai and I have a skate call. It's Olympic qualifiers and I'm really excited I can do the good in this and, you know, show everyone how beautiful skateboarding is again. And I'm so excited to start the Olympic Olympic journey again.
Speaker 1 00:10:33 So let's talk about the Olympics. Like what are you doing to prepare? Are you learning new tricks? What, what is the Olympic plan for Sky Brown,
Speaker 2 00:10:42 Mike? I said enjoy the journey. Enjoy the long ride with Mike's friends. Yeah, I'm definitely learning, trying to learn some new tricks and keep on improving, but I, I just wanna enjoy it. Like I misses so much. I miss like the Olympics and the journey so much that I had and I'm so excited to start it. So I just wanna enjoy as much as I can and get better, keep improving, push boundaries and yeah, close the gender gap.
Speaker 1 00:11:11 And do you, you know, you are, you are very young, you've got obviously got school friends, you've got like this whole youthful life to lead. Like do you find that sport gets in the way or is it easy to find the balance between the two?
Speaker 2 00:11:23 Sports doesn't, don't get in the way. Um, you know, I having schoolwork and being a teenager is, I don't know, it's honestly so like nice having sports to do and stuff to do in between and you know, having fun, you know, go with my friends and then go surf, go play little surf with them and go, you know, skate with them. I honestly, it's so fun, you know, skating and surfing, it's, it's my life. It's like my lifestyle and it's my playground. It's my favorite thing to do and it's, yeah, it's fun. I don't know, it's, it doesn't get in the way.
Speaker 1 00:11:59 Do most of your friends skate as well? Is that where most of your friend, your, your friendship group is?
Speaker 2 00:12:05 No, I mean I do have friends at Skate and I do have friends that surf and it's honestly like, I don't know, it's so fun cuz such like a sport. Like you don't have to be good at it to do it, you know, you can just go into it and try it out and have fun and it's, that's what I love about them. Like, anyone can do it. There's no rules, there's no style, there's nothing, there's no limit. So, and we kind of just all do it and yeah, I even teach like my non-skiers surf friends to, you know, do and it's fun. I love it.
Speaker 1 00:12:38 Um, sky, I have one more question for you. Where do you see yourself in 10 years time?
Speaker 2 00:12:45 I see my sew traveling a lot. I love traveling, going on some cool surf ships, um, and skate and, well, my goal is the nine olders or even now, my goal has always been to teach kids how to skate, especially in underprivileged places. That's always been like a thing I love. I went to Cambodia and stuff. I like teaching the kids how to skate there and just made me feel so good that I just want to keep doing that. Especially, you know, growing up and you know, just, I don't know, when I see kids like learning new stuff and teaching them how to skate it, they, I see how happy they are and it makes me so happy. So I really hope I can do that when I'm over there. Um, yeah, I'm definitely gonna try to keep skating and surfing. Yeah. As much as I can, as long as I can. So I'll probably be doing that in 10 years.
Speaker 1 00:13:37 <laugh>. So you think teaching, that's interesting that, that's really, that's a nice kind of noble thing to want to do. Brilliant. Sky, you've been fantastic. Thank you so much for taking time to talk to us, um, here at the Edge. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Edge. If you'd like to listen to more episodes like this one, check out our interviews with surfers Maya, Gabe and Kai Lenny. And if you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe and leave us five stars. It does make a difference. Thank you so much to Sky Brown for joining us. I'm your host, tey Vanden, brca, and I'll be back next month with another episode of The Edge, a podcast by Tag Hoya. See you soon.
