Great Britain’s 12-year-old world skateboarding bronze medallist is recuperating after an horrific accident but already thinking of next year’s Olympic Games
“I thought it was kind of cool,” Sky Brown says as she remembers the first time she watched footage of her horrific skateboarding accident eight weeks ago. In the video, she flies up a 14-foot ramp, flips around in the air and comes swooping down on her board. Her skateboard makes a clattering whoosh as she zooms up the opposite vertical ramp and it’s only near the top that Brown loses control. The board veers to the right and she hurtles off the ramp.
Brown’s arms and legs flail helplessly as if seeking some kind of invisible traction while she plummets 15 feet. The camera drops to the ground as her father runs towards his little girl. She was still only 11 years old and Brown suffered multiple fractures in her skull, lacerations to her lungs and stomach, a broken left arm and busted fingers on her right hand. The skateboarder, who will represent Great Britain at next year’s Olympic Games, where she hopes to win a medal, recovered in intensive care.
Related: Skateboarder Sky Brown on serious fall: ‘My helmet saved my life’
Every contest I go for more than the gold medal. I want to push the limits and do my hard tricks
