Bombette Martin: The British skateboarding Olympian who is still a teenager

Bombette Martin is 15 years old and represent Great Britain in the park discipline of skateboarding.

After the street event, the internet went crazy for skateboarding.

Bombette’s preferred discipline, park, is faster and higher than what we saw earlier in the Games. The women will skate around concrete bowls looking to land tricks after throwing themselves down near vertical drops.

The Olympics skateboarding schedule sees the women compete in the heats on August 4 at 0900 JST with the men starting a day later on August 5 – also at 0900 JST.

Bombette Martin and the teenagers taking over the Olympic skateboarding world

Bombette and her Team GB team mate Sky Brown have a combined age of 28.

"Little kids are just fearless and when you're closer to the ground it hurts less when you fall," Martin said, to the BBC, who began skateboarding at the age of nine.

The Olympic gold medallist in street was Nishiya Momiji of Japan who was aged just 13. The park event will be no different in that regard with only six competitors born in the 20th century.

Bombette Martin: Story behind the name

Bombette’s name is certainly memorable. Her father was a successful amateur boxer who was nicknamed ‘Bomber’.

"He actually was trying to go to the Olympics himself, he was close but no cigar," she said to Sky Sports.

Her dad went on to contest over 100 amateur bouts.

Bombette Martin and the Olympic spirit

Sky Brown is ranked third in the world and is a medal hope for Team GB. Bombette is realistic about her chances about challenging for the podium.

"This time I'm not going to win an Olympic medal - that's for girls like Sky and I really hope she gets one - but it would really make me feel like 'wow I've really accomplished something' to get there myself," she said to the BBC.

"Just to be able to say that you've been to the Olympics is insane, but just to know that I've made it to the top, to know that I've accomplished something and worked so hard for something, not just sat around all day long being lazy is just, I mean that's pretty cool."

Bombette Martin: The native New Yorker with the Birmingham connection

Bombette was born in Manhattan but has decided to represent the country of her father at the Olympic Games.

“I like to make the joke that I'm half a New Yorker, and 3/4ths a Brummie! I spent so much of my childhood in Birmingham because my dad is British, so I guess it didn't really cross my mind, or my family's mind, to even try and compete for America. We just decided to try and go for Great Britain and it's worked out," she said to Sky Sports.

Bombette Martin and the wider impact on skateboarding in the UK

Since skateboarding’s inclusion at the Olympics, more and more women are deciding to take it up as a hobby.

Darren Pearcy is the Team GB skateboarding leader attributes some of it to the exploits of his squad.

“When you see someone like Sky or Bombette fly in the air around curves and bumps – you can’t not get excited about that,” he said to the Guardian.

The average female participation rate is 15% in the UK but some cities, like in Nottingham, are seeing more women join with the figure there at 43%, according to ID Magazine.

It’s the community spirit from her fellow female competitors that really inspires Bombette.

"It's great that so many of my competitors are teenagers and I get to compete against people around my age, because it's a really close community where everyone is so supportive."