# Rayssa Leal

Jhulia Rayssa Mendes Leal (born 4 January 2008) is a Brazilian professional skateboarder who won a silver medal in women's street skateboarding at the 2020 Summer Olympics and a bronze medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

## Early life

Leal was born in Imperatriz, the second largest city in Maranhão, Brazil, to parents Haraldo Oliveira Leal and Lilian Mendes. She has a younger brother, Arthur. She started skateboarding at the age of six, after getting her first skateboard as a gift from a family friend.

## Skateboarding career

Leal first gained attention at the age of 7, when a video of her skating in a tutu and jumping off tall structures on her skateboard went viral online. Leal's mother filmed the video on September 7, 2015, and sent it to American professional skateboarder Tony Hawk. The next day, Hawk reposted on Twitter and commented: "I don't know anything about it, but it's amazing: a fairytale-style heelflip in Brazil". At that time, she always made a post with the best maneuver of the day. She was dubbed "A Fadinha do Skate", translated roughly as "The Little Fairy of Skateboarding".

### Early competitions

At age 11, Leal competed in the 2019 Street League Skateboarding Championship in London, placing third with a score of 26.0, finishing above Alexis Sablone, Letícia Bufoni, and other skaters but behind fellow Brazilian Pamela Rosa and Australia's Hayley Wilson. In July 2019, she placed first at the Street League Skateboarding Championship in Los Angeles, leading the podium ahead of Pamela Rosa and Alana Smith. Also in 2019, she won a fourth place for her first X Games appearance.

### 2020 Summer Olympics

In 2021, Leal competed in the pandemic-delayed 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo at the age of 13, the youngest Brazilian ever to participate in the Olympic Games. In the skateboarding street competition she placed 3rd in the qualifiers. In the final, she won the silver medal. At 13 years and 203 days old on medal day, she was the youngest Olympic medalist in 85 years, and became an instant celebrity, gaining 5.8 million new followers on Instagram. The young athlete also won The Visa Awards following her display of sportsmanship towards her opponents during the competition. The prize is a $50,000 donation to a charity of her choice.

### 2021–2024

On August 28, 2021, Rayssa won the opening leg of the 2021 Street League Skateboarding season, which took place in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. In the last round of tricks, Rayssa needed an 8.3 rating to pass Funa Nakayama and managed to get an 8.5 rating. It was, at that time, the highest score in women's SLS history, as no woman had done a kickflip followed by a handrail maneuver until this point in an official competition.
In April 2022, she won her first X Games gold medal, defeating Nakayama and Chloe Covell.
In November 2022, she won the 2022 SLS Super Crown in Rio de Janeiro.
In December 2023, she won again the 2023 SLS Super Crown in São Paulo. In the final, she got a 9 rating for the first time in her career. This achievement also made her the first woman to get a 9 rating during the run section in an SLS competition.

### 2024 Summer Olympics

In July 2024, she won a third place at the Olympic Games in Paris, becoming the youngest ever Brazilian double Olympic medallist.

## Media appearances

Leal is set to appear as one of the new playable skaters in the 2025 video game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4, a remake of the third and fourth entries in the series.