Five years after stepping on a skateboard for the first time, Vareeraya Sukasem will represent Thailand at the Olympics, aged just 12. Vareeraya, known by her nickname “ST”, booked her place in dramatic fashion at a qualifying event in Budapest last month and will be one of the youngest athletes in Paris. Feeling “pressured and stressed” going into the event - the last chance to qualify - Vareeraya failed to make the final round and headed to doping control thinking her hopes were dashed.
“While waiting for my testing result, my mom messaged me: ‘ST, you made it to the Olympics!’,” she told AFP. “I was so happy. I screamed in the middle of the room because I was so happy that I had really made it.
” Vareeraya qualified 18th out of 22 for the women’s street skateboarding event, which will be held in the French capital’s Place de la Concorde on July 28. Skateboarding, split into park and street events, made its Olympics debut at Tokyo three years ago, with skaters judged on the height and difficulty of their tricks. British idol Vareeraya’s journey to Paris began aged seven, when her mother took her to a new skate park near their home in Bangkok.
The youngster thought she was going to rollerblade, but her mother Tulraya Chantawong, a singer and former contestant on The Voice Thailand, had other ideas. “My mother lied to me and said that they didn’t allow rollerblades, only skateboards,” she said. “I did not like it at first.
I was like ‘why do.
