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Heimana Reynolds wins skateboard world title, nears an Olympic goal from age 10

By OlympicTalkSep 15, 2019, 4:52 PM EDT
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Spain crushes Argentina for FIBA World Cup title Sky Brown, 11 years old, is third at world skateboarding championships ahead of Olympic debut Shaun White eliminated from world skateboarding championships, to decide future

In February 2009, a 10-year-old Heimana Reynolds was profiled by his local NBC TV station on Oahu.

“My goal is to become a professional skateboarder and compete in the X Games and the Olympics,” he said, according to the report.

Skateboarding would not be added to the Olympics for another seven years. But here Reynolds is, age 21, having just won the world title in park, one of two skateboarding events that debut at the Games in Tokyo.

Reynolds, who wasn’t named to the four-man U.S. national team in March, consolidated his lead in the Olympic qualification rankings by prevailing over a pair of Brazilians in Sao Paulo on Sunday.

A shirtless Reynolds scored 88 points in the final, beating Luis Francisco (85.50) and Pedro Quintas (85).

No more than three Americans can make the Olympic team in the event, which will make it difficult if three-time Olympic halfpipe snowboarding champion Shaun White decides to continue his skateboarding pursuit. White was the sixth-best American, bowing out in the semifinals in 13th place on Saturday in just his second contest since returning to competitive skating last year.

Back to Reynolds. He grew up on the North Shore and attended the Punahou School, where Barack Obama is the most famous alum. His first name is Tahitian, reportedly referring to the power of Jesus’ crown of thorns.

Reynolds, the son of a surfer, proved a natural on land. After pre-teen media profiles, he blossomed into a world silver medalist last year. He won an Olympic qualifier in China in July to take the top spot in the Olympic rankings despite a best career X Games finish of sixth.

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Sky Brown, 11 years old, is third at world skateboarding championships ahead of Olympic debut

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By OlympicTalkSep 14, 2019, 4:27 PM EDT
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Heimana Reynolds wins skateboard world title, nears an Olympic goal from age 10 Spain crushes Argentina for FIBA World Cup title Shaun White eliminated from world skateboarding championships, to decide future

Sky Brown, an 11-year-old who appears en route to becoming the youngest female Summer Olympian in 50 years, took third at the world skateboarding championships in Sao Paulo on Saturday. The sport debuts at the Olympics in Tokyo.

Brown posted her highest score of her four finals runs in the last round, 58.13 points, of the park event. It was not enough to overtake Japanese Misugu Okamoto and Sakura Yosozumi. The new world champion Okamoto is 13 years old. Yosozumi is 17.

Brown has been raised in Japan by a Japanese mother and a British father. The 2018 Dancing with the Stars: Juniors winner appeared in a Nike “Dream Crazier” ad with Simone Biles, Serena Williams and Chloe Kim in February.

She has not clinched an Olympic spot yet but is well on her way as the qualifying season continues.

She turns 12 years old just before the Tokyo Olympics begin and would be the youngest Olympian since Romanian rowing coxswain Carlos Front at the 1992 Barcelona Games.

She would be the youngest female Olympian since Chinese ice dancer Liu Luyang in 1988 and the youngest female Summer Olympian since Puerto Rican swimmer Liana Vicens in 1968, according to the OlyMADMen.

The Tokyo Games feature four skateboarding events — men’s and women’s street and park.

NBC Olympic Research contributed to this report.

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Shaun White eliminated from world skateboarding championships, to decide future

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By OlympicTalkSep 14, 2019, 3:19 PM EDT
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More: Olympics

Heimana Reynolds wins skateboard world title, nears an Olympic goal from age 10 Spain crushes Argentina for FIBA World Cup title Sky Brown, 11 years old, is third at world skateboarding championships ahead of Olympic debut

Shaun White finished 13th at the world skateboarding championships park event in Sao Paulo on Saturday. Now, he will decide if that was a strong enough showing to continue his Tokyo Olympic bid.

“This will be the deciding event,” White said after advancing out of qualifying Thursday in a SporTV video interview. “I basically told myself I’d go here and give it everything I have, and then, after this competition, see how I stack up with the other skaters and then make the decision to fully commit to the Olympics.”

He does not stack up high enough right now to make the first U.S. Olympic skateboarding team of no more than three men in park. Three other Americans advanced from the semifinals to Sunday’s eight-man final. The U.S. also had four of the world’s top eight men in the Olympic ranking as of July 22, after two contests. The team won’t be decided until qualifying competitions wrap up next year.

White, a three-time Olympic halfpipe snowboarding champion, said in July 2019 that he would lighten his snowboard schedule as he returns to skateboarding.

White, 33, entered his first skateboard contest in years last September and called his performance “pretty terrible,” but not surprising given it was his first-ever park event.

White earned five X Games skateboard medals between 2005 and 2011, but all of those came in vert, which is not on the Olympic program.

White hasn’t competed in snowboarding since the PyeongChang Olympics, his longest break in that sport.

White has said he would like to go for a fifth Winter Games in Beijing in 2022. He would be 35, older than any previous Olympic snowboarding champion. He’s already the oldest halfpipe medalist.

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