by sportswriters Hu Jiali and Zhang Zewei
DAKAR, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Two falls, two disappointing scores, and a place at the bottom of the leaderboard.
For China's Zhu Yuanling, the road to gold in the women's street skateboarding final at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games was anything but smooth.
However, when the pressure was at its highest, the 15-year-old delivered the performance of her life, turning a seemingly hopeless position into a historic triumph.
"Falling is nothing. Champions are made through falling," she said.
At the Complexe Tour de l'Oeuf on Thursday, Zhu showed that in skateboarding, the difference between defeat and victory can come down to a single successful run, and the courage to keep trying after falling.
A familiar name on the international stage, Zhu had already established herself as one of the sport's rising stars. She finished ninth at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at just 13 years old and arrived in Dakar fresh from winning the women's street title at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games in September.
Yet her reputation and previous achievements offered little protection against the sport's unpredictability.
All six finalists experienced falls or mistakes during Thursday's competition. Even Zhu, the eventual champion, repeatedly lost her balance and sustained an injury along the way.
Her troubles began in the opening two runs. In the first, she fell off her board twice, managing just 25.72 points. The second proved even more difficult, as she fell at both the beginning and the end of her run, scoring only 17.84 points.
After two rounds, she was at the bottom of the standings.
"After the first two runs, my score was the lowest, and things were definitely looking dangerous. I was nervous for a moment, but I quickly calmed myself down," she recalled. "I told myself that as long as the competition wasn't over, I still had a chance."
That belief would prove decisive.
Unlike many other sporting competitions, street skateboarding offers athletes room to recover from mistakes. The women's final consisted of three runs and three individual tricks, with each skater's best run score added to her best trick score to determine the final result.
China coach Yu Wenhao made a crucial adjustment to Zhu's strategy before the third run. "We made a slight change to the original plan and reduced the difficulty a little. We removed one flip in the middle and another at the end rather than pushing the difficulty to its limit," Yu explained.
The adjustment paid off.
Zhu completed her third run cleanly, earning 67.44 points, which was the highest run score among the six finalists. In a matter of minutes, she had moved to the top of the standings in the run section.
"If I hadn't completed my third run successfully, I probably wouldn't have won the gold medal," she said.
But the biggest test was still to come.
In the individual tricks section, Zhu opened with a strong 74.71-point performance. Her second attempt ended in another serious fall, leaving her with no points and putting the outcome back in doubt.
Despite the pain and fatigue from her earlier falls, Zhu summoned the concentration to execute a technically demanding switch nose slide. The judges awarded her 82.38 points, the highest trick score of the competition.
"I was so excited and happy, especially because this competition was such a nail-biter," Zhu said. "Being able to land a high-difficulty run on the third attempt was just amazing. By my final 'big move', my legs were already going weak. I was carrying an injury, and they felt so soft that I could barely even make contact with the board."
Her total of 149.82 points secured the gold medal, finishing 11 points ahead of Brazil's Duda Ribeiro, while Canada's Evie Pritchard took bronze, less than half a point behind the runner-up.
"Today's experience was a real test. It's not often that things get this rocky for me," she said. "I need to improve my mindset. I still get impatient sometimes, which can affect my concentration or lead to emotional outbursts."
Dakar 2026 marks the first time skateboarding has featured as a medal sport at the Youth Olympic Games, making Zhu the inaugural women's street champion in the event's history.
For her, however, this gold medal is not a destination. It is another starting point.
Her next ambition is the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, where she hopes to return as a stronger, more complete competitor.
"I hope that at the Los Angeles Olympics, I can show everyone more difficult tricks and better runs. I want to win a medal and fight for gold," she said.
"It means a new beginning, and it means endless training and falling again and again," she added. ■
