History was made this weekend in Tokyo when the first Olympic medals in skateboarding were awarded. The gold medals in both street events went to a pair of Japanese teenagers, including 13-year-old wunderkind Momiji Nishiya in the women’s street event.
The event’s debut was a slam dunk, highlighting the sportsmanship, camaraderie, athleticism and pure fun we all hope to see at the Olympics.
But another kind of history was made when Team U.S.A. skateboarder Alana Smith hit the park alongside Nishiya and others.
Proudly wearing a pin with their pronouns and sporting a skateboard with “they/them” written on it, the 20-year-old Smith made Olympic history as part of this year’s wave of non-binary and trans athletes.
And they did it in style.
This is a banner year for queer and trans representation at the Olympics. While Smith is the first openly non-binary person to compete for the United States, they’re joined in Tokyo by the likes of non-binary Canadian soccer player Quinn and trans weightlifter Laurel Hubbard from New Zealand.
Smith won their first X-Games medal in skateboarding in 2013 when they were just 13 years old. Since then, they’ve competed on the international stage and set out to break gender boundaries when it comes to skateboarding. They came out as non-binary publicaly in the past year. And while we’re all still waiting for the day that the gender binary isn’t the defining factor in sports, Smith’s participation in the women’s event as a non-binary person is still a big deal.
They had more than a few tumbles throughout the event this weekend and ended up ranking last, but they obviously had a blast participating. And people took notice.
In a social media post following the event, Smith said they accomplished what they set out to do.
“My goal coming into this was to be happy and be a visual representation for humans like me. For the first time in my entire life, I’m proud of the person I’ve worked to become,” they wrote on Instagram. “I chose my happiness over medaling. Out of everything I’ve done, I wanted to walk out of this knowing I UNAPOLOGETICALLY was myself and was genuinely smiling. The feeling in my heart says I did that.”
But this weekend’s event showed that professional sport still has a way to go when it comes to fair treatment of trans and non-binary athletes. Somehow, despite Smith being openly out on social media, their Team U.S.A. bio using they/them pronouns and it literally being written on their board during the competition, several international broadcasters—including NBC’s Todd Harris and Paul Zitzer—repeatedly misgendered Smith throughout the event.
Here’s hoping Smith inspires a new generation of non-binary skaters to get into the sport, and the existing generation of broadcasters to do literally the bare minimum.
Because trans and non-binary athletes aren’t going anywhere.
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