SAO PAULO: When she saw 13-year-old Brazilian Rayssa Leal win silver in the first-ever street skateboarding competition at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Giovanna Alves Farias only had one wish: to start flying around a skate park herself.
“I nearly cried. Seeing a 13-year-old girl like me win a medal was so unexpected!” Giovanna told AFP. “Before the Games, I was already interested in skateboarding, but after seeing that, I told my dad: ‘Let’s go!'”
Leal’s success is fueling a boom in skateboarding — long a sport dominated by men — among women and girls in Brazil, who see themselves soaring to new heights, maybe even at the Olympics.
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