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Skateboarding: Sky Brown
Sean M. Haffey/Getty
Brown, who is turning 13 on July 12, will be Great Britain’s youngest Olympian of all time, and most promising athlete. She’scurrently ranked fourth in the world, and has skateboard legendTony Hawksinging her praises.
“She could definitely be one of the best female skaters ever, if not one of the best, well-rounded skaters ever, regardless of gender,” Hawk toldESPN. “She has such confidence, such force, even at such a young age. The way she’s able to learn new tricks and the way she absorbs direction, it’s so rare.”
Last year in June,she revealed on Instagramthat she experienced her worst fall, which led to skull fractures and a broken wrist and hand.
“It’s okay to fall sometimes,” she said from a hospital bed in her Instagram clip. “I’m just going to get back up and push even harder.”
Brown’s father Stu is from Great Britain, whom she’s representing; her mother Mieko is from Japan.
You can watch the skating phenom compete on Aug. 4.
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Surfing: Caroline Marks
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The 19-year-old, who iscurrently ranked No. 6 in the world, is “excited to represent my country” but admits she “100 percent still gets nervous” while out in the water.
“That’s what makes it exciting though, is exciting nerves,” she toldPEOPLEin April. “The [morning] report says it’s going to be this wave, but it’s actually totally different. It’s bigger or smaller, or windier, it changes so much. And that’s what makes [surfing] so cool and I think that’s what makes it forever exciting.”
Marks, who initially got into the sport to impress her brothers at 8 years old, made history as the youngest surfer to qualify for the World Surf League Championship Tour at just 15 and won gold at the 2016 ISA World Junior Surfing Championships Girls Under 16 division, according toUSA Surfing. She will join Kolohe Andino, Carissa Moore and John John Florence to compete in Tokyo, and you can catch the crew compete, starting Saturday, July 24.
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Karate: Sandra Sánchez
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“The International Karate Federation has been struggling for years to make this (Olympic) dream become a reality,” she wrote on herwebsite. “Hence, I think this triumph will imply positive consequences for the future.”
Watch if Sánchez can earn gold in Tokyo from Aug. 4 to 7.
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Sport Climbing: Adam Ondra
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Born to climber parents in 1993, Czech Republic’sOndrabegan climbing at 3 years old and has since been called the best climber in the world. He’s the only male climber to win world championships in both lead and bouldering and he alsowon the World Cup series in both categoriesin 2009, 2015 and 2019.
“I just climb a lot and train a lot because I love it,” he said. “I don’t need to convince myself that now I need to train hard because I want to be good at this competition, I just train because I love to train, because in the end, most of the time, training climbing is climbing.”
Catch Ondra in his element on Aug. 3 to 6.
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Softball: Cat Osterman
Cat Osterman.Harry How/Getty
As for her history as an Olympian? Osterman has gone from being the youngest person on the 2004 team to the oldest on the 2021 team.Catch Osterman and Team USA on July 23 to 27.
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Baseball: Kim Hyun-soo
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The 33-year-old veteran, who has played 14 seasons in the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO), will be expected to win gold again alongside his younger teammates and the support of returning manager Kim Kyung-moon.
“It’s not going to be an easy tournament, but we’ll put our national pride on the line,” manager Kim toldThe Korea Heraldin June. “Our people have been going through so much with the pandemic, and we want to give them something to cheer about.”
Watch Hyun-soo and team Korea on July 27 to Aug. 7.
source: people.com
