US park skateboarding star Minna Stess keeping it real as she bids for Paris 2024: “If I land what I want to land I’ll be happy”
In an exclusive interview with Olympics.com, the 17-year-old skater talked hissy fits and home videos, the perks of a backyard skate park and why she's keeping it fun as she looks to qualify for Team USA.
Skateboarding
Minna Stess was just shy of her second birthday when she started skateboarding.
With the fervent determination only a toddler desperate to keep up with their sibling possesses, the 17-year-old Team USA park star started skating after following her older brother onto a board.
“I don’t really remember,” Stess told Olympics.com. “I just wanted to copy whatever he was doing, so I was chasing him around the park. There’s this old video of me running around in Dora (the Explorer) knee pads in my diaper.
“It’s pretty funny,” she added with a reassuring smile.
The connection Stess forged with her board at such a young age was as strong as it was instant.
When her parents brought her along to watch her brother compete in a local contest, they forgot to pack her skateboard - and she quickly let her feelings be known.
“I had a hissy fit,” Stess explained. “I was crying. I mean, I obviously don’t remember, but I was crying, and I passed out. So, next time they were like, ‘Okay, we’re going to bring her board every time now’.”
Stess’ unsuspecting parents never anticipated that their daughter’s obsession with skateboarding would result in her becoming a child phenom, but after seeing her thrive whizzing around bowls with ease they did what they could to foster her spirit.
Videos captured of a helmet-clad, padded-up Stess from the ages of six and nine show her completely and fearlessly in action; tackling stairs, ramps and bowls with impressive ease and infectious energy.
“I was crazy,” Stess said, admitting she often goes back to watch the clips whenever they cross her mind, or when she can’t sleep.
“There are videos of me doing front flips into foam pits. Like, I wouldn’t do that now.”
When the time came the family even transformed their garden into a skatepark to enable Stess to keep progressing as her potential soared. Even to this day, she uses it all the time, inviting friends over so that they can join in.
“I feel really lucky because, in my town in Petaluma, there's not like a really good skate park so the best skate park is probably in my backyard.”
Minna Stess: "In the end, it’s just fun"
Contest skating came as a natural choice to channel Stess’ talent and the young American rider took to it straight away.
In 2013, then just eight years old, she became the first girl ever to win the California Amateur Skateboard League. At 11 she went to an X Games qualifier before competing in a final just two years later.
When the inaugural USA Skateboarding team was announced in 2019, Stess made the squad and has been featured on it ever since. Two years later she underlined her place in its ranks when she became the youngest-ever national park champion.
Talking through her steady but sure rise, Stess flashes the remarkable authenticity that makes her a favourite among other skaters.
Having started so young she admits there is now a certain “weird” normality to competing meaning she doesn't get too wrapped up in the fuss. Any pressure to succeed stems mainly from her own desire to do well and what she loves best.
If she ever finds herself going through what she calls a “mental block” after repeatedly failing to land a certain trick that then wreaks havoc with her imagination, Stess explains how she turns away from the thought and remembers that, ultimately, her priority is always to enjoy herself.
“Contest skating is kind of weird because you're doing your hardest tricks in a line and when I think about it now, I'm like, wow I’m doing my hardest tricks. If I was doing this for fun it would take me one or two hours, so you have to be really on top of your tricks.
“I feel it [pressure] a little bit but it’s mostly because I put it on myself because I’m like, I’m here, I need to be good. But in the end, it’s just fun.
“Everyone's trying to be competitive and beat each other but it's also not that serious. Everyone's just trying to have a good time and make it memorable.”
Minna Stess: Paris 2024 Olympic hopeful
After having been named as an alternate for Team USA at Tokyo 2020, in 2021, Stess is now taking aim at Paris 2024 where skateboarding is set to return having captured the world’s imagination with its Olympic debut.
Back in January, the teen took a key step on the road to qualification after she finished in seventh at the 2022 World Skate Park Skateboarding Championships in Sharjah, coming in second among US skaters at the contest.
With its seemingly endless conveyor belt of talent, the USA has developed a reputation as a powerhouse in the sport meaning competition for Olympic spots can be fierce across both park and street disciplines.
Though admitting to feeling sad at having just missed out on the Games in Japan Stess, who supported her teammates every step of the way from her sofa back in California, remains focused on the skating she can with the quiet belief that the rest will eventually follow.
"Hopefully I’ll be in Paris,” Stess concluded as she looked to the journey ahead between now and the Games. "I think it would be really cool to go and represent the US."
“I’ll see how it goes. I try and not to think about my placement too much. I just focus on what I want to land, and if I land what I want to land I’ll be happy.”