Inside the wonderful world of US park skateboarding star Bryce Wettstein: 'Skating is a roller coaster'
Ahead of 2023 World Skateboarding Tour Park San Juan, 19-year-old Wettstein spoke to Olympics.com about that Tokyo 2020 moment and her hopes of making it to Paris 2024.
Skateboarding
Sitting on the grass, strumming her ukulele and singing an original song as she waits for her interview with Olympics.com to begin, it was clear at that moment, Bryce Wettstein was in her element.
The 19-year-old US park skateboarder, with her bright yellow sneakers covered in pen-drawn doodles, is well-known in the skating community for her boundless free spirit, creativity and warm nature that she openly shares with others. “Bryce is Bryce”, team-mate and fellow park skater Minna Stess said when asked to describe her friend; there is no one quite like her.
Her unique approach to life, and its quirks, became more obvious as she began to reflect on her Olympic journey that began at Tokyo 2020 where she was part of the inaugural women’s park skateboarding class. Wettstein finished the contest in sixth as the highest-placing American.
“I think the difference between Bryce from Tokyo and Bryce today is that here, I feel almost like who I am now isn't looking to be anybody I was or anybody I will be,” Wettstein shared.
“In Tokyo, there was this place where it's like, I'm here but how did this happen? I got there, and I didn't know where to start. Now, I kind of have that memory with me. So, the difference is, I have so many memories that I can pull now just because of Tokyo. Tokyo is almost like a portal to all the other things I dream of, and it brought me closer to the dream I am in now and it makes me feel like I'm living dreams rather than just dreaming of living dreams."
Bryce Wettstein: #Strongertogether moment at Tokyo 2020
Aside from having made it into the final, Wettstein was also one of the seven skaters who collectively won the Tokyo 2020 Fair Play Award, which recognises extraordinary displays of sporting spirit during the Games.
After reigning world champion Okamoto Misugu fell during her final run the skaters went over to console the 16-year-old with Wettstein and Poppy Olsen lifting her up on their shoulders. It was a moment that epitomised the community feel in skating and captured the imagination of the world watching from home.
“When we were there, we just wanted to be there for each other,” Wettstein said describing the moment.
“It was like letting off all the things that we've been working so hard to go to and just being us, which is sometimes so hard to do because you feel like you have to climb the ring ladder and be like, We're here now. It's time.
“Sometimes you forget, like with all the goodwill and life happening, you forget about the camera and all the things that are really happening and going on. You just feel sometimes when you're just feeling, you forget to think anything once or twice or second guess yourself, which is for the best, because the things that happen by default are the most beautiful things, because you just know they're right.”
“What's so beautiful about the sorority in skateboarding is we don't try to be anything that we're not... We're given the time to realise we all have that similarity of really wanting something, but also wanting others to have that same thing too, which is so beautiful because the best friendship, it has the most understanding you'll ever have. Ever.”
Bryce Wettstein: Finding freedom in skateboarding
Wettstein’s instinct to go with her feelings during that moment in Tokyo speaks more broadly to her style of skateboarding. When on a board, zipping around the bowl, the American’s movements look effortless; reminiscent of park skating from decades before.
“When I'm skateboarding, it feels like I'm letting go of all the things I've been holding on to. It feels like all the things that I've been having to hold I can just be like, not just let it go, but let it come back to me. And I feel like sometimes I feel away from myself, but also closer to myself at the same time, somehow,” Wettstein ruminated, opening up about the freedom she finds in skateboarding.
“I feel like I'm able to see almost everything. It's just, it's kind of so beautiful to describe because it goes. It goes past and forward. It goes to the future; it goes to the past. You see all the things that before are hard to see because sometimes in life we find ourselves focusing in on something. Trying, trying, trying. And then skating. I'm like, I'm going to try not to try. I'm going to just go and whatever. Wherever you go today is where you're meant to be. So just try not to overthink it.”
Wettstein’s philosophical approach to skating also extends to when things get tough while she’s out on her board.
If sometimes she struggles to land a certain trick, the American turns to the infinite creative possibilities available to her and remembers that sometimes it is simply about waiting.
“The lows are sometimes probably when you go for the same trick a lot. When you're about to do the same trick and you're like, I really want to see that in a new way, but do I have time to do that right now? Do I have time to see that in a new way?
“Then you say, well, skateboarding is timeless. As much time or as little time as you have there’s always a timeless part of skateboarding that comes back because you remember how long you've been doing it for, and how long you maybe will be doing it for.
“So that timelessness comes into play, and you start to realise the benefactor of it is you, you can always find that new part of it, that new component in it. Even when you're doing the same thing because it's always different because it's a new moment. So, the beautiful part is that now that I can find something new to work on, something new to try, I also find that old part of it again. So, it's like a gift that keeps giving and giving and giving, even though it's the same gift.”
“In skating, it's kind of like a roller coaster. The things that take you the furthest down you need to see to go the furthest back up because the beautiful things in life start from the smallest things and become big.”
Bryce Wettstein on competing: There's so much that can happen
With an X Games bronze and a US national title (2019) to her name Wettstein, who began skating at the age of five, is no stranger to contest skating.
But while others might have certain targets or results in mind when they drop in, the American explains that her approach to success is much less about meeting certain expectations and more about being present and feeling her way through the experience.
“I try to sometimes bring it down to the simplest of terms,” Wettsein said explaining her mindset.
“I'm here with people. I love doing something. I love seeing something new. I try to pinpoint the newest thing around me and be like, how can I put this in juxtaposition to what was last around me?
“It's not about what I'm trying to see or get or take from it, but what I'm trying to give to something so it can give back to me to give to somebody else. It’s not really just being set on some mindset, but being open to anything that comes in, because the more that comes in, the more I'm just going to give it back out. And that's a really beautiful thing, I think, to not let yourself be fixed on anything but to be ready for anything because there's so much that can happen that will just keep going on and keep happening.
“I feel like we all have our different allocations for what success could be," she continued. "Most of us find success in receiving that feeling that we've always wanted.
“The best part is just being able to make success exactly how you love it. Because for us, it's just like it's always differentiating. Sometimes I also find that a lot of things take a lot of time. Like sometimes not just to think, but to stop yourself from thinking, it takes time. To [stop and] be like, ‘How am I feeling?’ That's a success for me. If I can feel that; if I know how I'm feeling in a day.”
Bryce Wettstein on Paris 2024: "I hope so much to go"
The next major contest awaiting Wettstein will be in San Juan, Argentina where the next Olympic qualifier for Paris 2024 is already underway.
Having thrived in Tokyo, Wettstein is once more hoping to make it to the Games again and relive the experience of being alongside her friends skating on sport’s biggest stage.
At the 2022 Park World Championships earlier this year, Wettstein took an important step forward in her qualification campaign for the Games after she finished the contest in fifth. With the event worth double points, things look good so far for the American but she’s not allowing herself to get too carried away with future thoughts.
The skater, who lives and feels every moment of the present, is only allowing herself to hope at this junction.
“Some things are too big of a dream to say,” admitted the skater tentatively looking ahead.
“When I think of Paris, I think of all the things that maybe could be true. And I always like to say, I'm just hoping; I hope so much to go. I feel like not only for me, that's the thing, but for everyone. Like if I go, I want to go with everybody who wants to go too.
“I feel like the more I hope for things, the more I'm not saying they have to happen or that like they must happen, but just that more than anything, I'd love them to happen."