2021 Olympics: Skateboarding team's head coach Mimi Knoop has a Cincinnati connection
On the other side of the world in its Tokyo debut, Olympic skateboarding has a Cincinnati connection.
Mimi Knoop, the head coach of both the men's and women's U.S. skateboarding teams, attended Wyoming Middle School and graduated in 1996, according to a post on a Wyoming High School alumni association Facebook page.
This is the first time skateboarding has been an official Olympic sport, and the U.S. has already won one medal as of Monday, with Jagger Eaton winning bronze in the men's street discipline at Ariake Urban Sports Park.
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Knoop told the magazine Frank 151 that she first started skateboarding as a child after watching one of her neighbors. From there, she has held various titles and roles in the skateboarding world, including two silver and three bronze medals at the X Games.
According to her LinkedIn, Knoop is the founder of Hoopla Skateboards, which encouraged female participation in the sport. She's also the founder and president of the Women's Skateboarding Alliance, a global management and consulting agency representing the industry voice of women’s skateboarding, and is a member of the board of directors for the Tony Hawk Foundation.
When it came time to choose a coach for the skateboarding team, Knoop told Frank 151 she was approached.
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"And I think, you know, once it got to the point where they were starting to bring on staff and fill these roles, they just asked the skaters and the skaters were just like, ‘You should hit up Mimi,’" Knoop told the magazine. "That’s kind of how it went from what I understand anyway. And I was like, ‘Well, yeah! I’m not gonna say no to this.’"
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