FILE – Filipino skateboarder Margielyn Didal during the awarding ceremony of the street skateboarding event of 2019 Southeast Asian Games at Tagaytay Extreme Sports Complex on Saturday. PHOTO BY EARVIN PERIAS
MANILA, Philippines—Margielyn Didal will have the opportunity of creating her legacy in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and doing so against her skateboarding inspiration.
The 22-year-old skater is part of the street skateboarding lineup who will compete in the Summer Games—the first time the sport will be played in the Olympics—where she will go up against her idol Leticia Bufoni of Brazil.
“I always looked up to Leticia Bufoni because she’s the top female skater when I was starting,” said Didal in a virtual press conference. “I still look up to her.”
Bufoni is the no.4 ranked street skater in the world and the third-best in her home country of Brazil.
The Sao Paulo native won the gold medal in the 2015 World Skateboarding Championship and has a further tally of five championships in the Summer X Games including the 2019 Shanghai edition.
Didal said she also takes inspiration from the other female skateboarders even those who won’t be competing in Tokyo.
Brazil’s Virginia Fortes Aguas, Gabriela Pereira Mazetto, and Isabelly Ávila Da Silva, Japan’s Yumeka Oda and Rizu Akama won’t be in the Olympics despite their top 20 status in the world as their respective countries already have three representatives for Tokyo.
“Most of the girls, even if they’re not in the competition they still inspire me,” said Didal, a gold medal winner in the 2018 Asian Games.