If you look at the Instagram feed of Olympic skateboarding medalist Rayssa Leal, you might be surprised to see a pair of old shoes with holes in them. They're a part of her story — and a symbol of how skateboarding has transformed her life.
Rayssa Leal became an internet sensation almost 9 years ago when a video of the then 7-year-old skateboarding in a bright blue, sparkly princess dress with fairy wings went viral. It earned her the nickname “fadinha do skate” — “little skateboarding fairy.” Soon she was being called “fadinha” — “little fairy” — in Portuguese.
The viral clip even reached the great American skateboarder Tony Hawk, who shared it with his Instagram followers with the caption “I don't know anything about this but I love it: a fairytale heelflip in Brazil by #RayssaLeal.” Here, Leal wears her iconic outfit in a photograph captured by Brazilian photographer, Suzy Negreiros.
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New shoes were a dream
Life wasn’t always a fairytale for the young skateboarder.
She got her first skateboard when she was 5 — a gift from her parents in 2013. She fell in love with skateboarding and dedicated her free time to practicing. But as she wrote in an Instagram post this March:
“When I was little I always imagined having good sneakers for skateboarding that were comfortable, but unfortunately my parents couldn’t afford to buy me the best sneakers. I would walk with shoes that had a hole in the sole that sometimes would even make a hole in my socks, it was what I had, and I was already very happy with that because just being able to skateboard was already enough for me,” she wrote about the sneakers, pictured in her post.
Despite the challenges, the “little fairy” persevered and by age 11 became the youngest street skater to win the women’s Street League Skateboarding World Tour final.
During the inaugural street skateboarding event in the Tokyo Olympic Games of 2021, Leal became Brazil’s youngest Olympian and medalist at age 13, winning silver in the women’s street skateboarding event. The next year, she won her first X-Games gold in the street style category and defended her title the following year, winning another gold.
“[Rayssa] is one of the best skaters, she’s one of the best street skaters out there. Period. I don’t care about the fact that she’s female or that she’s young, she’s just one of the best,” said Tony Hawk in an interview at the 2024 Laureus World Sports Awards in Madrid. Leal refers to him as “tio” — “uncle” in Portuguese. “Her trajectory is unstoppable,” he added.
Records, records, records
After winning a bronze medal at this year’s Paris Olympics, Leal became the youngest athlete in history to win a medal in two separate Olympic Games.
After her Paris event, she said she was crying "tears ... of joy" and added, "Just being here makes me happy. It’s something so big.”
And her feet were well-shod. She sported shoes from her collaboration with Nike, the “Rayssa Nike SB Dunk Low Pro” – a collaboration so successful it sold out within 20 minutes of its release earlier this year. It’s a full-circle moment for the athlete who once skated in beat-up shoes with holes.
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