Skateboarder Leticia Bufoni going to Tokyo Olympics has her own video game character

Flashback to the times when you used to imagine your favorite video game characters in real life. What if your wish just came true? Well, if you have ever played Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5, your imagination has come to life in the form of Leticia Bufoni. The Brazilian skateboarding icon is a playable character in the latest and previous versions of the video game. You are going to watch her in action competing at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 as Skateboarding becomes a part of the games for the very first time. But who is this girl and what's so special about her?

The girl who broke down barriers in women's skateboarding

The five-time X Games Gold medallist Bufoni's life has been no short of an inspiration. Beginning her life in skateboarding at the age of nine, she mentions that "in her neighborhood, she was the only girl skating with all the guys." Though the place of Sao Paulo has now become a hotbed of Brazilian skating, she faced resistance back then from her father as he broke her skateboard since she was the girl in the middle of 10 guys and banned her from skating forever. But he soon realized her love and talent for the game only after she won her first contest.

Would you prefer to move to a different country and a different land altogether in your teenage just for a sport? Maybe no, but Leticia buffoni had something else in mind. Her love for the game of skateboarding was so much that she wanted to become the best skater in the world and for that dream, she took this daunting task of relocating to California 'alone.'

Bufoni enrolled at Hollywood High School and her motivation drove her to claim the skateboarding glory within the span of the next two years winning first place at the Maloof Money Cup 2009. The power of your determination defeats every fear and she stands as the prime example as she got better each year from then, winning numerous medals and championships in various tournaments including the likes of three X Games gold medals, X games street in Norway, X Games Street Shanghai and others.

The star of women skateboarding has been the 'firsts' of many like the first woman signed to the Nike SB team, the first woman on the cover of The Skateboard Mag, and as you know, the member of Brazil's first ever-national skateboarding team.

Is her love only restricted to skateboarding?

You can see the charm in her eyes for the game while participating to make her nation proud this time but she has a lot more to offer as a person. She runs her own TV home called Leticia Let's Go in Brazil, has her solo license to 'skydive' and enjoys while she is in there and is the owner of her own board company named "Yeah Yeah Skateboards"

The Milestone Creator Bufoni

The charismatic girl has streaks of achievements added to her name. In 2019, she tied with Elissa Steamer's decade-old record for most gold in Women's SKB Street. Being one of the most influential athletes in the world, she was ranked #1 by the World Cup of Skateboarding from 2010 to 2013 consecutively for four years. She is also mentioned in the Guinness Book of World Records (2017) for the "most wins of the world cup of skateboarding." Bufoni has been named as one of the most powerful women in International Sports by Forbes and in the 'Under 30 list' of Forbes Brazil both in 2018.

What is her attitude towards participating in the Summer Games 2020?

Pushing all limits, Bufoni made history by taking down the taboo of women skateboarding and encouraged many young talents to take up the sport. She has watched the game transform over the years and believes that the transformation in the past two years has been tremendous. She stated, "I feel like after Tokyo it's just gonna be huge. I think it'll change everything" which serves as a landmark statement based on the fact that it's the first entry of skateboarding as an event at the Olympics and all the athletes who will get a chance to participate at the world stage.