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As the Sky Brown effect sweeping across swathes of the UK’s skateparks is brought up, former leading UK skateboarder Lucy Adams grins.
She’s been there, got the T-shirt. Skateparks were never really seen as places for girls. Adams would rock up to the parks in her youth — sometimes as the only female — and ignore the doubters. In adulthood, her ambition is to ensure the next generation of girls wouldn’t face the same obstacles and she started putting on female-only sessions in Brighton at her She Shredders club.
Now the 37-year-old is keen to capitalise on a breakthrough Olympics for the sport headed by a 13-year-old who splits her time between California and Tokyo. ‘There has been a phenomenal reception to Sky Brown,’ she tells Sportsmail. ‘She and (fellow Brit) Bombette Martin have had a phenomenal impact. Both have been over here competing in our nationals and they sparked some real interest. Sky did a girls’ night here at Graystone skatepark and it was packed to the rafters with different girls of all ages, and boys. We’ve heard from shops that they sold more set-ups and safety equipment, helmets and pads to women and girls than ever before.
The Sky Brown effect is in full flow, with 13-year-old sparking huge interest in skateboarding
‘I’m working with a skatepark in Nottingham and they had some data — in one of the age group sessions, around 10-14 more girls come than boys. I thought, “All right, cool”.
‘I was around that day and went to the session — it was dominated by 12 to 14-year-old girls. We are definitely seeing that Sky Brown effect. Some of them even say we have seen Sky and we want to be like Sky.’
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