At just 13 years of age, Brazil's skater Rayssa Leal became one of the youngest Olympic medalists in history as she won the silver medal in the first women's street skateboarding event in Tokyo. But long before this extraordinary feat, she had her own share of fame and recognition on the internet in 2015. Leal featured in a viral video where she was seen showcasing her skateboarding skills dressed in a blue dress with fairy wings. The clip showed her trying to land on her heel flip while jumping over a set of stairs. While she failed in her first two attempts, Leal refused to give up and managed to make a perfect landing in the third attempt.
The clip had become a sensation on the internet, and she was dubbed as the fairy princess because of her dress. The viral video is still available on Leal's Instagram account.
Check it out:
https://www.instagram.com/p/7VndX1A81b/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
After her medal win at the skating event on Monday, the Olympic committee's Twitter handle posted a collage of Leal's picture with a caption that read, "How it started” and “How it's going." While the first photo featured a 2015 picture of Leal skateboarding in her blue 'fairy' dress, the other showed her geared for a skateboarding event in Summer Games. The post waslaterupdated with the addition of a third picture that showed the athlete with her silver medal.
https://twitter.com/Olympics/status/1419531874498658304?s=20
Reacting to the tweet by Olympics, many users posted their comments and lauded Leal for her historic achievements. “So much talent at such a young age. It was inspiring watching a bunch of teenagers just enjoying their sport at the Olympics and having fun,” wrote a user reacting to Leal’s feat.
Here are some of the other reactions:
https://twitter.com/lifeof_smilez/status/1419742096764854278?s=20
https://twitter.com/ShandilyaNaveen/status/1419539936554807301?s=20
https://twitter.com/cbenedict33/status/1419742172597850120?s=20
Leal had competed at various international events and qualified for the first-ever skateboarding event at the Olympics this year. Performing at the first Street League Skateboarding world tour event in 2019, Leal secured the third spot and later that year, in July, she even bagged the first spot.
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