Competing on the biggest stage of their lives didn't rattle Momiji Nishiya and Funa Nakayama, two normal teenage girls who just happen to be among the world's best skateboarders.
The 13-year-old Nishiya won the inaugural women's street event at the Tokyo Olympics on Monday, becoming Japan's youngest-ever Olympic gold medalist in the process.
"It wasn't that different from other competitions," she said.
The Osaka native was completely in her element at the skate park, with a smile on her face -- even after a rough spill during her second run or when she missed her first attempt in the best trick section.
"Everyone says, like, 'ooh' when you land something, and that makes me happy," she said.
Nishiya first hopped on a skateboard around the age of 6 after her brother Hayate, three years her senior, took it up as off-season training for snowboarding.
She was always eager to try any tricks her brother performed and was quick to learn as a result, according to her father and coach, Sho.
"She was determined not to lose," he said.
At home, Nishiya is a "regular girl in her second year of middle school" who spends most of her time on her smartphone and loves video games, her mother Tomomi said.
In a post-competition press conference, Nishiya said she was looking forward to celebrating her historic accomplishment with "yakiniku" barbecue.
With games organizers having banned spectators at almost all Tokyo Games venues over COVID-19 concerns, Olympic officials comprised the bulk of onlookers during the competition at Ariake Urban Sports Park.
That may have worked in the favor of 16-year-old Nakayama, who took the bronze medal.
"Maybe it was because there weren't any spectators, but I was more relaxed than usual," the Toyama native said.
Nakayama's father Hiroshi took her to the new local skate park when she was in elementary school and she was immediately hooked, asking to go again the next day. When the park closes, she can be found practicing with friends in a nearby parking lot.
"She's an extremely hard worker, always quietly training," he said.
The meteoric rise of Nishiya and Nakayama was inspired by another female skater, reigning world street champion Aori Nishimura, who finished eighth on Monday after a series of heavy slams.
The 19-year-old has been a trailblazer of the sport in Japan, winning the street competition at the 2017 X Games at the age of 15.
"She doesn't do the same tricks as everyone else and isn't afraid of big handrails," Nishiya said of Nishimura. "She gives it her all in training, which I admire."
The ages of the medalists -- another 13-year-old, Brazilian Rayssa Leal, won silver -- seems fitting for a sport that made its Olympic debut just a day earlier, with the men's street event won by Japan's Yuto Horigome.
Skateboarding is one case of an Olympic sport without any minimum age restrictions.
The International Olympic Committee leaves such decisions to international federations, with sports including gymnastics and figure skating only allowing athletes above a certain age.
One of the biggest casualties of such rules in the past was Japanese figure skating icon Mao Asada, who would have been a gold medal favorite at the 2006 Turin Games, but missed the age cutoff by 87 days.
Skateboarding's governing body, World Skate, has no age restrictions for participation, but its regulations for skaters under 18 meant all three women street medalists wore headgear as they showcased their tricks.
