Doing it for her daughter: Why Paris 2024 and motherhood mean so much to Gabi Mazetto

Under the scorching heat of the mid-summer Roman sun Gabriela Mazetto performs a kickflip.

The street skateboarder is waiting to be allowed onto the skate park constructed for the Paris 2024 Qualifier event taking place under the watch of the Colosseum, so she is warming up accordingly.

With her eye-catching blonde braids and beaming smile it’s at once obvious the Brazilian is in her element, relishing every second being back amongst the competitive skate community.

“I’ve always wanted to go to the Olympics,” Mazetto tells Olympics.com. “Now that skateboarding will continue in the program, I’ll do everything to get a spot.”

The 25-year-old's resolution to make it to the Games in France’s capital is not worth underestimating.

In the lead up to Tokyo 2020, held in 2021, Mazetto was well in the mix to take one of the three qualification spots available to Brazil, one of the powerhouses in world skating.

Her nearest rival for the final spot, behind the prodigious Rayssa Leal and Pamela Rosa, was Leticia Bufoni a six-time X Games gold medallist.

But, in December 2020, just as things were ramping up, she received some unexpected, life-changing news.

Mazetto found out she was pregnant.

“I have more grit now,” Mazetto says reflecting on the way the life she knew was turned upside down.

“It’s crazy. It’s all so new to me, but I’m happy to be going through this moment in my life.”

Deciding not to tell anyone about the news at the time, it wouldn’t be until early August that the world would come to know about her daughter, Liz, who was born three days before the start of Tokyo.

“This is my gold medal,” she wrote in the caption on social media with a picture of her newborn.

After the birth, Mazetto decided to come back skateboarding to try once more to make it to the Olympics; her daughter quickly became even more reason to try and fulfil a life-long dream.

“I want her to understand the reason behind all of this. Why I leave her so much with her dad.”

The Olympic Games had always been the dream for Mazetto.

Growing up as an artistic gymnast, the Brazilian’s early years were spent toiling away on gym mats inside sports halls with the hope that one day she would represent her country on sport’s greatest stage.

Then, outside her mother’s home, a skate park began to appear.

Not unlike gymnastics in its emphasis on execution, rigour, and quest for perfection, but altogether set apart in its promotion of freedom of expression, a 13-year-old Mazetto traded in her leotard for a skateboard.

While the sport was different, the young Brazilian’s sense of ambition never disappeared and just a year after picking up a board, she won her first street skate competition.

In 2015, she began to receive invitations to compete in and attend skating’s top tier competitions. X Games came knocking and not too long after, Street League followed.

Two years later, just as the burgeoning talent was getting grip on her rise through the street skate ranks, she injured her posterior cruciate ligament, drawing her to a sudden halt.

Six months of rehab followed and Mazetto was soon back on a board and competing at a world championship in China. But when filming a video part shortly after, the Brazilian injured her knee again. This time it was devastating.

Forced to undergo surgery, Mazetto wondered if she would ever skate again.

After nearly a year out, she was even more committed to making her Olympic dream a reality. And, slowly but surely, Mazetto got herself to the verge of selection for the now delayed Tokyo Games.

Then, at a routine medical check-up appointment, her life took another turn when she discovered she was three months pregnant.

“At first, I didn’t understand why I was an inspiration to other women. Not just in skateboarding, but other sports as well. I’m working to understand this process," Mazetto muses about whether or not she is setting a new example. 

Motherhood and skateboarding are two things rarely aligned. Though women have been around skateboarding since the sport was created, their inclusion in the industry has been relatively recent.

With so much attention focused on providing men and women equal opportunity as well as the progression of women’s skating the dialogue around mothers in the sport has barely taken off.

It all makes Mazetto something of an anomaly, and that is something the Brazilian is still trying to adjust to:

“I’m not a skateboarding pioneer, but I’m a mother competing at a high level. I’m happy for it, and I thank everybody who has been supporting me because it’s been very gratifying.”

As she tumbled out of a fall with the flare of a gymnast before then soaking in the applause from the crowd who react to her innovative style it is clear Mazetto is a consummate performer.

Now sitting in 14th place in the World Skate Olympic Skateboarding rankings as the third Brazilian in the pile, the journey to Paris 2024 continues onwards.

To get the Games will mean more qualifiers and more time away from Liz, but Mazetto's determination remains constant:

“I'll keep going and focus to make sure everything goes well.”