She was in hospital the day she arrived at these Olympic Games, getting an MRI scan on her dislocated shoulder. Then, in qualifying here in the searing Parisian heat on Tuesday, the bone briefly popped out of its socket again when she fell.
“I ran down to her and she said, ‘Daddy, it’s come out’,” said her father, Stuart Brown, who is by her side at every competition. “As we were getting out she said, ‘I think it’s gone back in’. She didn’t want to show [pain] because she was so afraid of being pulled out of the contest [by competition doctors].”
While her competitors practised and refuelled, Brown spent the two hours before this skateboard park final with Team GB physios who massaged her shoulder and worked her arm, then iced it and taped it back up so it wouldn’t yield. She will need surgery when she returns home to Los Angeles.
Given all that, and having torn the medial collateral ligament in her knee in May while filming an advert for her new shoe (Nike SB Sky Brown Zoom Pogo Plus Skate Shoes, RRP £79.95), it is all the more remarkable that she not only competed here at La Concorde but won an accomplished bronze to go with the bronze she won in Tokyo, when she was only 13.
Brown held the silver medal position in the last round before Japan’s Cocona Hiraki pinched it with the very last run of the competition. Above them on the scoreboard, the new women’s Olympic champion is the pioneering 13-year-old Arisa Trew, an Australian prodigy who has been landing groundbreaking tricks for a year now.
This story is from the August 07, 2024 edition of The Independent.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the August 07, 2024 edition of The Independent.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Uefa's voyage of discovery is a mystery tour for fans
It isn’t so much how the new-look Champions League is going to work as will it work at all, writes Miguel Delaney
No same-sex couples leaves routines looking flat-footed
This year’s Strictly’ cast is without any same-sex pairings. Ellie Muir mourns the loss of them and explains why they’ve made for some of the best choreography in recent history
'Everything I ever worked on is coming together now'
Conceptual artist, painter, mentor to the YBAs, overnight success at 55. On the eve of a Royal Academy retrospective show, Mark Hudson interviews Michael Craig-Martin
BACK TO SCHOOL
This season sees designers leaning into the old trades of tailoring and ladies’ occasion wear, as previously outdated modes of dress are revamped. The kids are suiting and scrubbing up, writes Joseph Bobowicz from backstage
Seductress of the century
Femme fatale Pamela Harriman was able to change the course of history by captivating leading political figures from Churchill to Clinton using a legendary kingmaking’ technique to devastating effect, as explained by Sonia Purnell
World news in brief
Billionaire back on Earth after walking in space
Seven dead as 'catastrophic' Storm Boris floods Europe
Month’s worth of rain in 24 hours hits several countries
Here's how Harris wins the swing state of Pennsylvania
Scranton’s first female mayor has lessons for the presidential hopeful, ahead of her visit to the must-win state this week
Navalny ally calls on West to invest in Russia's next generation to beat Putin
‘The vast majority of anti-Putin, anti-war Russians are not changing their minds, Leonid Volkov tells Tom Watling
Home news in brief
Tributes paid to mother and children killed in triple murder