South Africa's Boipelo Awuah reveals how she found joy in skateboarding again as she targets Paris 2024
Known as the 'Diamond of Kimberley', youngster Awuah qualified for street skateboarding at Tokyo 2020 and met Nyjah Huston before fracturing her pelvis in practice. She's now looking forward to Paris and hoping to further inspire young female African skaters.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games did not go according to plan for South African skateboarder Boipelo Awuah.
Aged 15, she was set to appear in the street event at the sport's Olympic debut in the Japanese capital.
But a crash on the second day of practice left Awuah with a fractured pelvis which ruled her out of the competition.
Despite that setback, the 'Diamond of Kimberley' told Olympics.com that she made memories she will never forget.
Now, she is targeting Paris 2024 and hoping to inspire more young female skaters in Africa.
“What caught my eye is how everyone was warm. The Olympics is the biggest competition but we were like friends, no holding back.”
How Tokyo 2020 changed Boipelo Awuah's perspective
To represent her country and the African continent in skateboarding's Olympic debut was a real honour for Awuah.
“I knew that getting a medal was not an option for me, but just for them to see me on that stage, I felt gave so much hope and showed that someone of their kind is able to be amongst such great people and to compete at that level," she explained.
"It means a lot to me because when I was there, the opportunity that I had... it felt like a gateway for more female athletes and skateboarders to compete at such a high level."
It also gave her the chance to rub shoulders with some of the stars of the sport.
"“My best moment was definitely watching my idols skate and seeing how they can stay so calm under so much pressure.
"Someone I've looked up to my whole life is Nyjah Houston, He skated amazingly. And we even interacted and he was able to recognise me. That was mind-blowing - I still can't believe it!”
Boipelo Awuah on rekindling her love of skateboarding
Awuah, whose father is Ghanaian, never liked training. But she loved skateboarding.
She has been rolling since the age of five when she began "stealing" her brother’s skateboard.
“I would always see him and his friends skating, and I would wonder what is this? And then I tried it out and once I started, I couldn't stop,” she recalled despite her parents being "terrified".
But at 10, she stopped, admitting, "I wasn't enjoying it anymore. I was still very young, but I was getting pressurised into progressing... I thought of skateboarding as training, focus and all. Then it went downhill.
“I just felt overwhelmed. I stopped for four years and came back in 2019. Then I changed my mindset, that I'm just going to have fun with it.
“When COVID hit it that was the best time ever because I'd wake up, get ready, skate, have fun. No competition to worry about, nobody is looking at my position, just me having fun and that's when everything started working out for me.”"
"Just focussing on the having fun part worked out for me…It was all about having fun."
Ripping for hours pressure free during the early stages of the pandemic helped Awuah rediscover the joy for her sport.
She became one of the rainbow nation’s top skateboarders and earned the right to represent her country in the Street World Championships in Rome which meant her first trip abroad.
Awuah won the 2020 South African Championships and qualified for Tokyo 2020 as the highest-ranked African skateboarder in street skateboarding.
The 16-year-old is still enjoying the ride as she prepares for the World Skate Street World Championships in Rio de Janeiro in October, an important stop to earn Olympic qualifying points for Paris 2024.
Boipelo Awuah: "Skateboarding has taught me a lot of life lessons."
Being exposed to top-level tricks has had a profound effect on Awuah who wants to continue dropping off ramps at the risk being of called crazy.
“It's like we are psychopaths because we get injured so much, but we still go back to the same thing that injured us. I have this thing inside of me whereby when people don't necessarily see me going that way, I want to go that way.
"The more people discourage me not to do it, the more I feel like I need to pursue it and change the outcome and their perspective of this.”
She is now on a pathway to Paris 2024, which can be hard to navigate in a sport still trying to find a footing in South Africa.
“My parents have been applying for financial support because I do not have any sponsors at this point. Reaching out to multiple people, trying to make sure everything is prepared for that time.
"On my side, I've just been trying to skate as much as possible, so that when I do get to the competition in October, I'll be able to perform at my best level."
Four South Africans represented Africa in skateboarding at Tokyo 2020 and, despite the obvious financial constraints, Awuah believes there will be more next time round.
“What I see in my head for Paris is that there will be a solid South African, African team, more females and males representing us.”
Since Tokyo, where she was cruelly denied the chance to compete against eventual Olympic champion Nishiya Momiji and Brazilian star Rayssa Leal, Awuah has been doing her bit to raise the profile of skateboarding in her home country.
“It has changed a lot," she said. "There's a lot more support now and it has given me a wider network.
"People notice me now. I could be going to the supermarket with my skateboard, and they notice me. I've also seen that there are so many skateboarders joining the sport.
“I have been hosting these mini skate sessions, female skate sessions, where I give them (girls) an environment where they are comfortable because most of them don't feel comfortable. These sessions, it'll just be us, the girls helping each other and teaching each other."
If anything, that disappointment in Tokyo has made Awuah's passion for her sport even stronger.
The 16-year-old, who hopes to be a cardiologist one day, said, "Skateboarding is my life. I wouldn't be able to live without it. Skateboarding has shaped me into the person I am today.
"It has taught me a lot of life lessons like persistence and not giving up. In skateboarding, you fall a lot, but you have to go back and try it until the end.
"I feel like in my young adult life, I'll be more comfortable with the failures or the hard times that I'm about to face in my life. I'll be able to pick myself up and continue.”
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