This 11-Year-Old Olympic Skateboarding Hopeful Learns Her Tricks by Watching YouTube

One 11-year-old is conquering the concrete wave in such fashion that she hopes to be a fixture at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. 

Sky Brown, who is half-British and half-Japanese, is on Team Great Britain and wants to compete with them in next year’s Olympics as the sport makes its debut at the Summer Games. 

Sky lives in Japan but travels to California to compete and get her name out there. She started competing professionally when she was 7 and was youngest girl to compete as a pro at the Vans U.S. Open. She has also competed at the recent X Games over the weekend in Minneapolis. 

“I just want to skate,” she told CBS News. “I just love skateboarding, it is my happy place.” 

"Even if I fall or if I get hurt, that won't stop me to do what I love," she added. "I don't care what happens to me. I want to skate."

While Sky loves proving that anything boys can do girls can do better, she is also your average tween. 

"I love makeup, dresses, jewelry. I want girls to know that they can be a girly-girl and do sports,” she said. 

She loves adventure and is an avid surfer who wakes up at 4 a.m. each morning to get in the water by 6 to catch the waves in the Pacific. 

As Brown sets her goals high for next summer’s Olympics, she says her training in skateboarding comes not from a coach but from YouTube. 

"If I see somebody do that trick, I'll be like, 'I wanna try that.' I, like, watch YouTube. Keep doing it and doing it until I make it,” she told CBS News. 

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