Boipelo Awuah will in all likelihood be the youngest member of Team SA heading to the Olympic Games, which start in Tokyo, Japan, in a fortnight.
In a matter of months, the 15-year-old has gone from being a local hero to skateboarding in her first international competition, to meeting her idols on the global stage.
To top it all off, the Grade 10 pupil from Kimberley in the Northern Cape punched her ticket to the Olympics as the only African skateboarder in the women’s street skateboarding competition in Italy recently.
“It was crazy; I went from skating national competitions to skating the world championships out of nowhere, but it was an awesome experience,” said Awuah of the World Skateboarding Championships that were held in Rome between May and last month.
“It sunk in recently after coming back from Rome – that’s when all of it sunk in and I was like: ‘Oh my, I’m going to the Olympics!’
“It still today doesn’t feel real because some athletes spend their entire lives training for this moment, to make it to the Olympics.”
Awuah, who picked up a skateboard for the first time at the age of five, fostered dreams of representing South Africa at the highest level, but the Olympics never quite entered her orbit.
Skateboarding will be making its debut at the Tokyo Olympics this year and Awuah will be among the 80 athletes breaking new ground for the sport.
“Going into Tokyo, I want to be able to perform at my best level ... I’m not going out there thinking about winning and all that. I want to do my best and come back with no regrets,” said Awuah.
She admits that women’s skateboarding in South Africa and the continent is still in its infancy, and hopes that her story will inspire an awakening.
For a long time skateboarding in South Africa did not have a formal administrative body and it has only in recent years been brought under the purview of a recognised federation. Two years ago, Roller Sport SA provisionally adopted skateboarding to help athletes get to international competitions to earn points towards qualifying for the Games.
The sporting body hosted the country’s first national championships for skateboarders in December.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it held the second championships six months later to provide the athletes with an extra opportunity to earn points.
The top two athletes in each discipline and gender category were selected for the world championships, which served as the final qualifying competition for Tokyo.
Awuah won both national championships to earn a qualifying place in Rome, where she qualified as the top-ranked skateboarder from Africa in her discipline.
Her exploits in street skateboarding have earned her the moniker The Diamond of Kimberley.
“I’ve always dreamt about representing my country and skating at international events. I hope this is just the beginning and that I learn from this experience of representing South Africa at the Olympics, and hopefully win at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games,” she said.
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Growing up, Awuah would “steal” her older brother’s skateboard whenever he left it at home. She would skate out of sight of her protective parents, who did not initially approve of her skateboarding.
Her mother finally caved in and allowed her to go to the local skatepark with her father.
“That’s where it all started. I bought my own skateboard and I was hyped to have one of my own,” she recalls.
“I remember dropping into a quarter pipe [a smooth-surfaced wall with a curved base used for performing stunts in skateboarding] ... I flipped and fell on my head. I was about seven at this point, but I was just so excited.
“Until this day, my mother still doesn’t watch me skate because I fall so much. I just got back up [and tried again until] I got it right.”
Falling is par for the course, but learning new tricks in a place such as Kimberley can be difficult. Even though the town is considered to be the capital of the Northern Cape, it is small compared with other major cities in South Africa.
Much of Awuah’s skills are self-taught, while she has picked up a few tips from other skateboarders she hangs out with. She also turned to YouTube, but the videos were no substitute for real-world experience.
“I don’t have a coach, so all of this is learnt by myself. I teach myself all these new tricks, but our manager is also a skateboarder and I’ll ask for advice from my manager or some of my peers,” she said.
Awuah got to rub shoulders with some of her skateboarding idols at the world championships in Italy, and she also got some good advice.
She hopes to become the first South African woman to turn professional in the sport and help develop skateboarding among girls and women.
She attributes much of her success to competing with boys at her local skatepark, but hopes to see more girls discover the joy of landing their first trick.
“I definitely want to leave that legacy behind and I feel like I’ve already started paving the way.” – Olympics.com
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