Meet park skateboarding teen sensation Okamoto Misugu

Okamoto Misugu is 15 years old and has one thing on her mind: winning Olympic gold.

She has been winning top international park skateboarding competitions since she was 12 to the point where she now sits comfortably at the very top in the world rankings.

From being the first female skater to land a backside 540 and a kickflip Indy, Okamoto is writing her own story.

And ever since she first picked up skating at eight, she has been history in the making.

The rise of Okamoto Misugu

Born in Takahama, Aichi in Japan, Okamoto’s first Olympic Games will be on home parks.

She took up skating when she was eight years old, following the lead of her brother and relishing in how it ‘challenged’ her.

"Seeing skateboarders fly through the air was so exciting that I wanted to be like them," she said as quoted by Nippon.com.

Okamoto went from strength to strength and, in 2018, she knew she had to move away to realise her dreams of becoming a professional skateboarding.

Leaving Takahama, she went to live with the family of her coach, Sasoaka Kento, in Gifu, believing that it would be difficult to develop her skills back home – and that if she was living and training with her coach, international competition would soon follow.

The rest is history.

In that same year she would go on to finish third in the Japan Women’s Park Championships.

And, despite being so young, Okamoto wasted no time in establishing dominance in park skateboarding.

She showed up as a virtually unknown 12-year-old at the 2019 Dew Tour, and triumphed in emphatic fashion.

That was the first of an incredible run of success including X Games and the World Championship crown in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Okamoto maintained her strong form although her national teammate, Yosozumi Sakura, took victory at this year's Dew Tour in May.

The youngster insisted to Dew Tour there was no rivalry' between the pair and that the battle for her going forward was internal.

Making history with the backside 540

Okamoto took women's skateboarding to new heights in 2019.

At the Dew Tour, she "thrilled fans and staff alike" when she hit the backside 540, becoming the first female skater to land it in international competition.

She says Sasaoka emphasises the need to keep adding new tricks to avoid being caught by other skaters, so they worked on adding the 540 to her repertoire.

"It took about two weeks for me to do it in training," she told the Japan Times.

That November, she also made history by landing the first kickflip Indy in women's competition.

The 15-year-old star is doing her best to stay clear of her rivals and keep that number one world ranking.

Okamoto's skateboarding heroes

Okamoto revealed that her biggest skating influences are Coach Kento and his younger brother Sasoaka Kensuke, a leading men's skater.

"They still inspire me a lot!" she told Braille Skateboarding.

Living in their family home has clearly paid off judging by her tricks and results.

Coach Kento demonstrates a lot of tricks that Okamoto 'studies' until late, showing just how dedicated she is to the sport and succeeding.

Watch Okamoto at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics

If you want to watch park skateboarding's world number one potentially land a backside 540 on the biggest stage of all, the women's park competition takes place on Wednesday (4 August).

The preliminaries action starts at 9:00 JST, with the final scheduled for 12:30 JST.

You can read more about that, and all other events from the Games, in the official Tokyo 2020 Olympics live blog.