The youngest person to ever represent Finland at the Olympic games, 13-year-old Heili Sirviö, qualified for the final of the women's park skateboarding competition on Tuesday afternoon.
Sirviö's best score of 83.42, achieved on the second of her three runs, was enough to secure a place in Tuesday evening's final at Paris's Place de la Concorde.
"It feels really funny, because it took so long to get here and now that we are here, everything is crazy," Sirviö told Yle after learning that she had qualified for the final.
She added that she was "really nervous" ahead of the second attempt, especially as she had crashed during her first run.
"I just tried to take big breaths and be like, whatever happens happens," the 13-year-old said.
Finland has yet to secure a medal at this Olympic games, but Sirviö told Yle that she hoped to change that.
"I would really like to be on the podium. That's our goal, I'm going to skate as well as I can, hope everything goes well and maybe we'll have a medal," she said.
With a best score of 88.89 in the final, Sirviö finished in fifth place overall, narrowly outside the medal positions.
Given her young age, the Finnish Olympic Committee previously told Yle that Sirviö's selection was discussed extensively before the decision was made to allow her to compete. Typically, the committee does not allow athletes so young, but an exception was made in her case.
Edit note: Article updated at 19:25 on 6.8.2024 to note that Sirviö finished fifth in the final rankings.
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