Difficulty: Challenger (Level 2)
Five-year-old Felicity Leung Wai-yuet may look like any other Kindergarten Three student, but in a skatepark, she soars in the air.
Felicity has been skateboarding for a year and a half. Last year, she placed first for her age group in a competition in Taiwan.
Her parents introduced her to skateboarding because they wanted to encourage their daughter to try a sport. They decided on skateboarding because it was “not very common”. For Felicity’s fourth birthday, they gifted her a trial lesson.
“When I first started, I [could not] hold onto anything,” Felicity recalled. “It was scary.”
However, she has fallen in love with the fast-paced sport. “I like the bends and ramps. I like jumping,” she said.
Felicity practises “for four hours every day” and has several coaches who specialise in different elements of the sport.
Hard work pays off
Felicity’s hard work paid off when she was invited to compete in Taiwan in October 2023. She took part in the Starting Point Mini Ramp Contest by Starting Point Skatepark.
She qualified in the “under eight” category for girls, where athletes got two attempts to show off their tricks on the mini ramp. Though she made a mistake on her first attempt, Felicity executed a perfect run on her second effort, winning first place in her category.
The challenges
Despite her win in Taiwan, Felicity’s father, David, said the Leung family struggled to find suitable competitions because most will not allow entrants so young.
“We need to go overseas,” he said. “We have more chances in other places because, in Hong Kong, they set the [age] limit so high. In other places, they have competitions for younger [kids].”
The father-daughter bond
When not practising her skills or preparing for competitions, Felicity sometimes skates with her father, who picked up the sport alongside his daughter so he could film her in action.
“I want to capture her movement,” David said. “That’s why I wanted to learn, because [then you can] see the cameraman skateboarding with the skater.”
While her father admitted that he could not keep up with his daughter just yet, the two still enjoy skateboarding together.
Use the puzzle below to test your knowledge of the vocabulary words in the story.
Suggested answers
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Before you read: Answers will vary.
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Stop and think: Her parents wanted her to learn a unique sport, so they let her try a lesson as a birthday present.
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Consider: David wanted to become good at skateboarding so that he could film Felicity while she skateboards.
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