Olympic Spirit shown by Urban Games 2011 Skateboard Gold Medallist

A powerful story from this weekends Urban Games is a wonderful example of the Olympic ideals and spirit shown by Tom Branighan the young skater who won the gold medal in the skateboard competition.

A powerful story from this weekends Urban Games is a wonderful example of the Olympic ideals and spirit shown by Tom Branighan the young skater who won the gold medal in the skateboard competition.

Tom competed at 2010's skateboard competition winning the silver medal. In the run up to 2011's event Tom had been talking to skate tutors from YMCA North Tyneside for the past few weeks about he much he was looking forward to this years competiton and how he wanted to go one better.

In 2011 Tom competed in both the Skateboard event in the Skate Park and also in the Game of Skate medal event. As it turned out Tom was successful in getting the gold in the skateboard competition, but also won the gold medal in the Game of Skate too. Tom then told the organisers of the Game of Skate, that having won the other gold medal already, that he would prefer it if they gave the gold medal to the person who came second and that having won one medal he didn't need another one! So the young people who came 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the event ended up getting the medals! Nothing captures the spirt of the Olympics, the young people's legacy, the Inspire Mark and our event so brilliantly, as the saying goes- its not the winning, its the taking part that matters.
What a really great tribute to Tom, well done.

15th August 2011