‘Don’t age yourself’: meet GB’s unlikely Olympic skateboard trio aged 15 to 50

Sky Brown, who turns 16 later this month, will be going for gold in Paris. Photograph: Kieran Cleeves for OIS/IOC/PA

Spend any period of time speaking to those involved with Team GB’s skateboarding setup and the chances are an often repeated phrase will emerge. “Age is just a number” is not a novel mantra. But it has rarely been more apt in a sporting context than for Britain’s skateboarding contingent heading for the Paris Olympics this month.

At one end of the scale is Sky Brown, a teenage veteran who won bronze at the Tokyo Games weeks after her 13th birthday to become Britain’s youngest Olympic medallist. She will be 16 when she looks to upgrade that medal to gold at the Place de la Concorde, the same age as her GB teammate Lola Tambling.