Break. Climb. Skate. Ride. That’s the mantra of the first-ever Olympic Qualifier Series – a prelude to the Paris Olympics – which just one Kiwi has earned the right to attend. And she’s only 13 years old.
Auckland schoolgirl Jessica Ready will skate in the women’s street event next month alongside 464 of the world’s leading athletes in skateboarding, breaking, sport climbing, and BMX freestyle – all trying to get to Paris.
To be within sight of Olympic qualification has caught Jessica – who also goes by the nickname Decca – by surprise. “I wanted to go to the 2024 Olympics, but I didn’t think it was achievable,” she says.
According to Jessica’s mum, the Paris Olympics weren’t seriously on their radar until the end of last year.
“Until then we didn’t see it could be a possibility for Jessica – the opportunity to compete at that level was missing down here in New Zealand,” Diana Ready says.
But that changed six months ago when the Street League Skateboarding tour came Downunder for the first time, and Jessica got a last-minute call-up.
“The Sydney event was a bit of a shock for her at first,” Diana says. “The girls she’d been watching on her phone for the past four years were suddenly in the same room as her. It was interesting to watch her soak that up and be completely unable to do anything initially – but then get amongst it and realise she does belong there.”
Her performances in Australia, and at the 2023 skateboarding nationals where she won the women’s street event for the second year in a row, signalled she was ready for the world stage.
“We took a gamble,” Diana explains, “and went to the street world championships in Tokyo [in December] and she went through to the quarterfinal.”
Only then did Jessica consider the possibility she could qualify for the 2024 Olympics. “After Japan I thought, ‘Maybe’,” she admits.
Her next stop was the World Skateboarding Tour in Dubai last month, where she made it through to the semifinals and finished 14th out of a field of 75 riders. It brought the Olympics into sharper focus for Jessica, especially when she was invited to the first-ever Olympic qualifying series.
“I’d like to go to Paris,” the Macleans College Year 9 student says. “I just need to put down my runs and land all my tricks.”
Ian Neely, the high performance pathway development manager at Skateboarding New Zealand, believes Jessica has a good chance of qualifying.
“Jessica has a unique style and selection of tricks, and learns at a very fast rate,” he says. “She will continue to improve and if that includes qualifying for the Paris Olympics then that’s fantastic.
“But for me, the important component at the moment is for her to continue to love her skateboarding. If we can maintain that, the results will fall in line and might even surprise us.”
If Jessica manages to qualify and be selected for the Olympics this year, she will not only become the first New Zealander to compete in Olympic skateboarding – but also the youngest ever athlete to represent New Zealand at the Olympics. (The record is currently held by Rebecca Perrott, who was 15 at the Montreal Olympics in 1976.)
Jessica will have turned 14 by the time the Games roll around, which may seem young to be an Olympian, but it’s commonplace in her sport. At the Tokyo 2020 Games, when skateboarding made its debut, the women’s street gold and silver medallists were both aged 13.
Being young and fearless can be an advantage to a skateboarder, according to Jessica. “You just try a lot more stuff, and aren’t scared of being hurt. You’re more likely to take risks and learn lots of tricks,” she says.
It’s something Jessica’s mother hasn’t always found easy to witness.
“At times it’s alarming,” Diana says. “I have to hold back and let her throw herself at the concrete 100 times and just be there with the hot bath at the end of it.”
When Jessica began skateboarding at the age of nine, she wore protective padding while learning tricky new manoeuvres.
“Wearing elbow and knee pads, I was a lot less scared and would try big tricks because I could just slide out on my knees if I fell,” she says. “But you’re not supposed to wear pads for street skating so I stopped wearing them.”
At home, Jessica has grown up amid old skateboards and skateboarding videos belonging to her father.
“She has always been exposed to it,” Diana says. “Her dad is a huge skateboarding fan. Jessica has gone well beyond his level now, but he’s definitely her number one fan.”
While having enthusiastic parents has clearly helped, her mother says Jessica’s self-motivation is the main reason she has got this far.
“She goes skateboarding straight after school every day and all weekend and is out there until it’s dark,” Diana says. “Ultimately she is a really driven person.
“It’s not always easy – when it’s a bleak afternoon and no one else is at the park, you have to want to do it. She has a plan and a goal, and goes out there and does it. I’m the one sometimes saying, ‘Please get in the car. We just want to go home’.”
Jessica loves the creative side of skateboarding. Unlike gymnastics, which she’s done since the age of two, Jessica finds skateboarding far more self-directed.
“What drew her to skateboarding is that no one tells her what to do,” Diana says. “Gymnastics gave her a lot. It taught her how to compete individually and gave her physicality. But in skateboarding, she’s making the decisions. There’s freedom.”
Jessica skates at several different parks and urban locations.
“My training is just going out and skating. I skate most of the parks in Auckland,” she says, citing Birkenhead and Valonia Skatepark as two of her favourites. If it’s raining, she often trains at SonSk8 Indoor Skatepark in Glen Innes.
The street discipline of skateboarding takes place on courses that replicate features of an urban environment such as stairs, rails and ledges. Each rider takes two 45-second runs and also attempts five tricks. Their best run and two best tricks count toward their overall score out of 300. Judges assess overall impression, taking into account factors such as execution, speed and style, difficulty, use of the course, and variety.
Ever since skateboarding became an Olympic sport, the competition side has evolved rapidly. According to World Skate head judge Garrett Hill the difficulty of tricks has increased monumentally since Tokyo, especially in the women’s division.
Twenty-two of 44 female street competitors will qualify for Paris at next month’s Olympic Qualifier Series in Shanghai and in Budapest in June. Concluding on Olympic Day, the event intends to be an Olympic experience that merges sport, art, music and culture.
For Jessica, the event promises to be an unforgettable experience. One that could only be topped by competing at La Concorde Urban Park in July, under the watchful gaze of the Eiffel Tower.
