Cui goes close to podium in Olympic skateboard debut

Young and fearless, China's teen skateboarder Cui Chenxi has enjoyed every bit of her dream Olympic journey, with a near-miss from the podium leaving her motivated for more breakthroughs.

Boasting two clean executions out of five trick attempts, 14-year-old skateboarding sensation Cui held off a group of higher-profile foreign opponents, all teenagers, to finish fourth with a total 241.56 points in the street discipline final at the Paris Olympic Games on Sunday to mark a major step up of Chinese athletes in the urban action sport.

Skateboarding powerhouse Japan reigns supreme in the event with its world No 1 rider Coco Yoshizawa and No 2 Liz Akama finishing one-two on the podium after going neck-to-neck in their Olympic debut.

Brazil's Tokyo 2020 silver medalist Rayssa Leal secured bronze by landing her second successful trick in her fifth attempt, overtaking Cui, who had been in third place before Leal's final run.

Skateboarding street at the Olympics is competed in two sections: first, each skater takes two 45-second runs on a course featuring stairs, ledges, curbs, and handrails; then, each performs five individual tricks.

A skater's final score is aggregated from their best run and the two best tricks, requiring a versatile repertoire imbued with quality, creativity and style to prevail.

Despite being knocked off the podium in the final seconds, Cui remained upbeat, relishing all the ups and downs of her Olympic journey.

"A little bit, just that, no more," Cui said of her narrow defeat by Leal in the fight for a medal after the final at the iconic Place de la Concorde in Paris.

"Overall, I feel satisfied with my performance today, and I enjoyed so much doing the sport that I love all the way to the Olympics," said Cui, who won the same discipline at last year's Asian Games at age 13, becoming the country's youngest gold medalist at the continental event.

"I executed my first two tricks the way I wanted, but failed to step up a gear when I needed a higher-difficult one to beat the Brazilian girl's fifth trick. I could live with that because I haven't quite yet handled that difficult trick well enough.

"I kind of feel happy for her (Leal) because she's such a good skater who deserved the place on the podium, while I will definitely keep it going, perfect my own tricks and get better next time."