Team GB skateboarding medal hope Sky Brown to miss Olympic qualifier after knee injury

The 15-year-old sustained a MCL tear in her knee but should be fit for the second qualifying event, which takes place in Budapest next month.

Skateboarder Sky Brown will miss the Olympic Qualifier Series in Shanghai (Adam Davy/PA) (PA Archive)

Skateboarder Sky Brown will miss this week’s Olympic Qualifier Series event to recover from injury.

The 15-year-old sustained a MCL tear in her knee, according to NBC, and will subsequently miss the series, which starts in Shanghai on Thursday.

She told NBC: “Every injury I’ve had, I’ve come back stronger. So this is just my time to really think about what I want to do next. It really puts a fire in my heart, and yeah, it happens, it is part of life.”

Brown claimed park skateboard bronze at just 13 years old in the sport’s debut at the Tokyo 2020 Games.

She is currently ranked number three in the Olympic World Skate rankings behind Japanese duo Cocona Hiraki and Hinano Kusaki, the former of whom earned silver in the park skateboard event in Tokyo.

Brown had hoped to represent Team GB at this year’s Paris Olympics in both surfing and skateboarding, but failed to qualify at the ISA World Surfing Games in March.

It is expected that she will return in time for the second Olympic Qualifier Series event, which takes place in Budapest next month, and she hopes to medal again in Paris.

Brown added: “Since the [last] Olympics, I’ve won every event and I don’t want to lose that streak. So I’m going to keep going to try to get gold in every event, especially the Olympics.”