The Japanese Momiji Nishiya, only 13 years.A news that, although it could attract attention to Nishiya's youth, which has become the third youst person to win an Olympic test, is no surprise.In fact, silver in the same test has been won by Rayssa Leal from Brazil, also 13, and the other Japanese bronze, Funa Nakayama, 16.

A few years ago, especially among the members of the Z generation, the skate has ceased to be the exclusive territory of men.If one approaches any of the skateparks of our country or walks through the Plaza del Macba in Barcelona (one of the national and world skating mecas), although most skaters continue to be men, each time the presence of girls is morenumerous and striking.Until not so long ago, skaters were an exception, almost something exotic, but there have always been women in the skate.

Already in the 60s, the Californian Patti McGee made history becoming the world's first professional skater.He also won the first Skateboard Women.But although in 2010 it was included in the Skateboard Hall of Fame, in its time McGee never ceased to be a kind of sports curiosity.A rarity that made exhibitions of their skills throughout the United States or on television programs such as Johnny Carson's show to promote skates sale.

To find a comparable story here in Spain, we must advance some years, but not too many.In 1979, the first skatepark of Spain was inaugurated in the Catalan town of Arenys de Munt, a mythical place for the history of Spanish skate, which remained forgotten during the 80s and was later rescued by beak and blade in 2012 in 2012.Among the skaters who slid down their ramps in the late 1970."I spent every weekend in this skatepark,".“Although I was the only girl and sometimes I felt alone (precisely because of that), it was the only place where I wanted to spend every minute of my free time and where after the years I realized that I spent some of the best moments of mylife".This nostalgia that distils àngels's words is no coincidence: the skater could not become a professional skater, although perhaps he did not even go to do it..

That initial boom gave way to a certain forgetfulness during the 80s and, when it was again a trend among young people in the early 90s, and a certain professionalization began timidly, it had already become a 100% male practice.It is striking that a sport that has always presumed to be so rebellious, free and progressive has cost so many years to incorporate women.Finding a girl in the pages of Thrasher Magazine, the bible par excellence of the skater culture since the 80s, was then an almost impossible task (although, in reality, things have not changed too much), but it was precisely the first womanthat occupied its cover that caused that, with the change of the century, things began to change.

The photo of Cara-Beth Burnside appeared in the iconic magazine in August 1989, and then things were very complicated for skaters."The boys traveled and had a lot of opportunities, while I had none of that," Broadly told Broadly."There were no female competitions, so I had to compete with the boys in amateur tests".But Burnside loved this sport and continued skating despite all the difficulties.Thanks to his tenacity, he managed to get the attention of the industry and in 1994 she was the first woman to have a model of her own shoe in collaboration with Vans, but she has also managed to make history for her activism in favor of women in the skate.In 2003, together with the Jen O'Brien skatestride, he got the ESPN chain to create the female modality of skate within the X-Games, the most important extreme sports competition in the world.A couple of years later, however, he promoted a female boycott for that same contest upon learning that his teammates charged 50 times more (literally) by winning a test.The organization took three years to repair this injustice, which was corrected in 2008.This is just an example of what it cost to accept women, although it is not the only one: until 2015 Nike did not sponsored any skater girl;The first was the Brazilian Leticia Bufoni, who has also competed in Tokyo 2020.

In Spain, many women have been fighting for years to get a hole in the local skate panorama.In 2009 the group was born asplanchaba in Barcelona.“At that time there were hardly any girls on the scene and also not know much about them.Nor were they given much coverage either at the international or national level, ”says Verónica Trillo, one of the founders of the collective.“In 2009 I began to collect information, share and create contents on the Internet to give light and make visible the small female skate scene of the moment.Thus, the first female tours, events and actions to boost the scene, inspire other girls and encourage them one more scalch was born and with her more ”.The name of the collective comes from a song from the clowns of the TV whose lyrics said: “Monday before lunch a girl went to play /but could not play because I had to iron /thus ironed, so /thus ironing, so /so /Thus I ironed, so / thus ironed that I saw him "."We play with that letter, since in the street language," iron "a trick is to do it with great forcefulness and precision," Vero tells us.“We wanted to turn those archaic ways of attributing household chores to women and giving them their place on the street, having fun as they liked them, with a skate under their feet or as they gave them the chain.Today we like to think about thus ironing as a community, a place where all girls have a space to express themselves and find new references and inspirations ”.

And it seems that it is taking effect.Each time, the presence of skaters in the media and social networks, a thermometer we have to measure the impact of all this trend, is greater.HBO launched Betty last year, a series that has just released its second season, and which has as its protagonists the girls of a skaters crew that has turned its actresses and skaters in an entire cult phenomenon.

But also in our country a small group of skaters who are standing out in networks and outside them are being formed.Among them we can highlight Cata Díaz, Tania Cruz, Camila Ruiz, Andrea Wilshusen or Andrea Benítez, the 26 -year -old Andalusian who has made history representing Spain at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Verónica de Eso Planchaba has lived closely the process that has culminated in this participation in the games, since it was one of the participants, on behalf of the women's skate, in the National Skate Committee, created by the Royal Spanish Skating Federation forPrepare this competition.He also lived the initial doubts that emerged in the skater community about the consequences of the inclusion of sport at the Olympic Games.“The community was divided between those who wanted the skate to remain pure, underground, not commercial and saw in the Olympic a threat to the roots and their real essence;And those who saw it as an opportunity for possible things to be possible that many people can make a career, not only sports, but as coaches, monitors, technical teams, that spaces, scholarships or more skateparks are created.Also the one who stops perceiving how vandals to skaters, are pursued, etc..Personally I think the games will give a lot of visibility to the skate, they will open many opportunities to people who did not have them ”.

Verónica describes the current moment of the female skate, races, colors, ages, levels and styles ”, tells us.“And we love that, because it is in essence what the skate represents, it does not go from tricks or‘ mud ’, which also.For us, its essence is the way of expressing yourself, your creativity and your personal style with a table and four wheels, and that unique magic is available to almost all people.That is the real skate, the one you can find in the streets and where each person expresses himself as he feels ”.