"Unaware of Being World No.1..." 14-Year-Old Who Skated Locally Wins Gold Medal [Japanese Side]

Skateboard Gold Medalist Yoshizawa Koko
Belongs to Local Skateboard Shop... Practices at the Park

"An Olympic gold medalist born in a park."

Regarding the Paris Olympics, the skateboarding category has recently become a hot topic in Japan. It was first introduced at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and this time the gold medalist was as young as 14 years old, attracting attention.

What’s even more surprising is that this 14-year-old’s training base was not the athletes' village but a local park. It was reported in the media that she didn’t even have a smartphone and didn’t know whether she was better than others or not, earning her the reputation of a "hidden master." Today, we share the story of Japan’s female skateboarding street gold medalist, Yoshizawa Coco.

Player Yoshizawa Koko participating in the Paris Olympics. (Photo by NHK)

Yoshizawa was born in 2009 and is a 14-year-old third-year middle school student. Influenced by her older brother who is four years older, she first learned to skateboard in the second grade of elementary school. However, it wasn’t that she showed extraordinary talent from the start; rather, her family simply asked, "Do you want to try it too?" She actually disliked skateboarding weekends because she kept falling from high places and getting scared, but was made to continue. So, she only skated through elementary school and planned to join the tennis club when she entered middle school.

Then, in the fourth grade of elementary school, her mindset changed after participating in a competition. She was told, "If you show all the skills you have learned, you can rank," and prepared for the competition. Despite giving her all, she finished fourth and narrowly missed winning a medal. This ignited her competitive spirit.

Afterwards, due to COVID-19, she started practicing one-on-one with her father at a local park. During this period, she honed a trick called the "Big Spin Board," which involves rotating the board 270 degrees horizontally while sliding on a rail and jumping off. She practiced for more than five hours a day.

Yoshizawa Koko posing after winning the gold medal. (Photo by Yoshizawa Koko Instagram)

In fact, the coach who trained Yoshizawa continuously up to this Olympics runs a skateboard shop and also provides lessons. Therefore, all of Yoshizawa’s media interviews list her affiliation as the name of this shop. The coach, who appeared in the media as such, is known to be the owner of the skateboard shop "ACT sb Store" located in Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture, which attracted further attention. The coach said, "Yoshizawa can practice a single skill infinitely until she masters it," and added, "I thought she had already reached the world’s top class by the fifth grade of elementary school."

The problem was that Yoshizawa didn’t have a smartphone at that time, so she couldn’t observe how other players performed at all. Moreover, because skateboarding competitions were canceled due to COVID-19, she had no opportunity to showcase her skills and didn’t even know how good she was. The coach said, "She reached an unbelievable level," and, considering her growth, made her practice even more.

Then, in the sixth grade of elementary school, she re-entered the competition where she had placed fourth two years earlier and won first place. Watching peers of a similar age perform in the skateboarding category on TV at the Tokyo Olympics, she set her goal to participate in the Paris Olympics.

Yoshizawa Coco, who participated in the women's skateboarding street event at the Paris Olympics, is showcasing her skills. (Photo by NHK)

At last year’s World Championships, she placed fifth, and at the Budapest qualifiers in June, she challenged a trick called the "Big Spin Flip Board Slide," which combines rotation with the "Big Spin Board" she had practiced. Although she didn’t succeed at that time, she secured her spot in the Paris Olympics. Yoshizawa then focused on perfecting this trick until two to three months before the Paris Olympics and ultimately succeeded in performing it at the Games. This directly led to her winning the gold medal.

Yoshizawa, who didn’t even realize she was ranked number one in the world and steadily honed her skills not in a glamorous place but in a local park, has sparked a festive atmosphere in her hometown, with people saying, "An Olympic gold medalist was born in the park." In an interview, she confidently said, "You can face sports as one with many people. Skateboarding careers are short, but I want to prove that I can compete in the Olympics even as an adult." However, when asked by reporters, "What do you want to do now that you’ve won the gold medal?" she showed her pure side by answering, "I want to eat ramen. I also want to go to Disneyland."

We look forward to seeing her continue to showcase her amazing skills in the future.