Sky Brown 16-year-old pushes through injury to take bronze

Aged 11 she survived a near-fatal skateboarding crash; at 12 she fractured her skull; at 13 she won bronze at Tokyo; at 15 she tore her knee and at 16 - little more than a week after dislocating her shoulder - Sky Brown took bronze again in the park skateboarding in Paris.

- Alexandra Topping

Brown and the 15-year-old Japanese skater, Cocona Hiraki, became the youngest athletes to ever win a medal at two Olympics in the park event at La Concorde yesterday, after being narrowly beaten by 14-year-old Australian Arisa Trew to the gold.

A bronze could be seen as a disappointment for a skater who has added skill upon skill to the already impressive repertoire that won the same medal in Tokyo three years ago. But after six months of fighting to recover from a serious knee injury, a week when she battled to even take part in this competition, and a morning that had left her struggling to hold back tears of pain, this felt less like a missed opportunity, than one seized.

Sometimes it is the taking part that counts - at least if you end up on the podium.

"It was a little scary falling on my shoulders going to the final my last run, and then going to the final," said Brown after the competition. "I had to send it. But I did fight through it, and gave it my best."

By mid afternoon yesterday, at the close of the qualifying round, it was far from clear that Brown, despite securing her place in the final by finishing in fourth, would be able to come out for the last round of the competition, never mind get a medal.

She had qualified in fourth place thanks to a relaxed opening run, but had induced panic in her team when she came off her board twice in the next two runs.