Fifteen-year-old world champion skater Sky Brown isn’t letting an untimely injury put a stop to her Olympic Gold dreams. While filming for a project in early April, the British Olympian tore her MCL, the band of tissue around the knee that connects the thigh bone and shin bone.
“It’s part of skateboarding,” Red Bull athlete Sky Brown tells Teen Vogue of the accident. “The two ligaments had a lot of space between them. There was a lot of swelling, so it was definitely very scary.”
Given an eight-week recovery period, Brown was forced to miss the first Olympic qualifier event in Shanghai. Thankfully, the youngest professional skateboarder in the world secured her 2024 Olympic spot with her win at the World Skateboarding Championships in 2023. Still, she plans on competing during the second Olympic qualifying event in Budapest in late June.
With orders to stay off her knee, Brown took this time to strengthen other aspects of her body and mind. “I got as strong as I could without using my knee,” she explains. “I just wanted to come back stronger and as fast as I could. I got an MRI a week ago and [my doctor] couldn’t believe [how quickly I healed]. He said it’s the fastest he’s ever seen a torn MCL recovery. He was definitely in shock.”
Whether it was limiting her screen time and getting outdoors as much as possible, or her protein-heavy diet and numerous physical therapy appointments, Brown isn't quite sure what helped her recover so quickly. But she’s glad it worked.
She’s still taking things slow, only just now getting back on the skateboard. It’s more important for Brown to be healthy and train properly than rush back to the half-pipes. “I just want to come back stronger than ever,” Brown says. “Every time I can’t skate or surf or can’t move that much it’s not that easy of a time for me. But it is part of my story and I feel very strong now.”
Leaning on her family and friends for support, Brown isn’t afraid to admit she allowed herself to grieve post-injury. With the incident happening so close to the Olympics, there were a lot of what-ifs that frightened her. She allowed herself to feel these emotions before committing herself to her healing journey.
“Thinking about the amount of kids and people I inspire [with my] story and having come back and being in the Olympics puts a fire in my heart,” she explains. “I feel like the falls make me stronger. … Just thinking about what I could do next makes me want to go harder, too.”
This isn’t the first time Brown has injured herself ahead of a major competition. Weeks before the 2020 Olympics (which were held in 2021 due to the pandemic), Brown suffered a fractured skull and a broken left wrist during half-pipe training. She went on to secure a bronze medal in the park event making her the country’s youngest medalist at just 13 years old.
“I'm not inspired by winning. I want to be the best and that is it,” Brown adds. “The injuries are just as important to me as the gold medal. Just that feeling of coming back is a win.”
