Best Female Skateboarders of All Time, Ranked
On this page16
- 01The greatest female skateboarders at a glance
- 02Leticia Bufoni
- 03Lizzie Armanto
- 04Sky Brown
- 05Rayssa Leal
- 06Momiji Nishiya
- 07Coco Yoshizawa
- 08Arisa Trew
- 09Nora Vasconcellos
- 10Patti McGee
- 11Alexis Sablone
- 12How We Ranked Them
- 13At a Glance
- 14How the Two Disciplines Are Judged
- 15Why the Sport Skews So Young
- 16Where to Go Next
Placement rewards hardware first — Olympic medals, X Games medals, and World Skate/WST titles — then breaks ties on historic firsts (first-ever tricks or titles) and sustained influence over a single breakout. Pioneers earn spots for doors opened, not recent scores.
The greatest female skateboarders at a glance
| Rank | Skateboarder | Strongest legacy |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leticia Bufoni | Career competition hardware |
| 2 | Lizzie Armanto | Transition-skating benchmark |
| 3 | Sky Brown | Olympic park medals |
| 4 | Rayssa Leal | Two Olympic street medals |
| 5 | Momiji Nishiya | First women's street Olympic champion |
| 6 | Coco Yoshizawa | Paris 2024 street gold |
| 7 | Arisa Trew | Park progression and Olympic gold |
| 8 | Nora Vasconcellos | Dual-discipline professional career |
- Career leader
Leticia Bufoni
Bufoni holds the deepest trophy case in women's skateboarding: 12 Summer X Games medals, six of them gold, which makes her the most decorated female Summer X Games athlete in history per Guinness World Records. She ranks above Olympic medalists like Rayssa Leal because no one else has stacked results across street's entire modern era rather than one or two Games.
Brazilian-born and Los Angeles–based since her teens, she also became the discipline's biggest commercial draw, and the sponsorship money that followed her helped fund the women's contest circuit the younger names now compete on.
Country: Brazil · Discipline: Street · Defining feat: 12 X Games medals (6 gold), most by any female X Games athlete
- Transition benchmark
Lizzie Armanto
Armanto is the first woman to complete Tony Hawk's 360° loop, the 14-foot full-pipe vertical loop Hawk made famous in 1998 — a barrier only around 15 skaters had cleared when she rode it in 2018. She spent years near the top of World Skate's park rankings and carries rare crossover credibility between contest skating and video parts.
She ranks just above Sky Brown on career breadth and that loop, though Brown holds the Olympic and world-championship hardware Armanto never won — a genuinely close call between a veteran benchmark and a decorated prodigy.
Country: USA/Finland · Discipline: Park/vert · Defining feat: First woman to ride the 360° loop
- Modern great
Sky Brown
Brown owns two Olympic park bronzes (Tokyo 2020 at age 13, Paris 2024) and two WST world titles, the second earned defending her park crown in São Paulo in early 2026 at 17. That mix of Olympic podiums and world championships is why she edges Rayssa Leal, whose medals are silvers.
The context behind the results is unusual: in 2020 she fractured her skull and broke bones in a training fall and was airlifted to hospital, then returned inside a year to make the Tokyo podium.
Country: Great Britain · Discipline: Park · Defining feat: 2x Olympic bronze + 2x WST world champion
- Two-time Olympic medalist
Rayssa Leal
Leal took back-to-back Olympic street silvers — Tokyo 2020 at 13, then Paris 2024 — plus two X Games golds at Chiba 2022 and 2023. She sits behind Sky Brown because she has yet to convert a silver into Olympic gold or hold a world title: she entered the São Paulo 2026 Worlds as defending champion but finished fourth after a knee injury on her final attempt.
Brazil's "Fairy of Skate" went viral at seven and became one of the youngest Laureus World Sports Award nominees, giving her a reach few current skaters match.
Country: Brazil · Discipline: Street · Defining feat: Two Olympic silvers + 2 X Games golds
- Historic first
Momiji Nishiya
Nishiya won the first-ever Olympic women's street gold at Tokyo 2020 at 13, beating Rayssa Leal (silver) and Funa Nakayama (bronze) on what is widely called the youngest Olympic podium in history. That result is a permanent line in the record book, which is why she ranks above the reigning champion below her.
Her win set the template that a run of Japanese teenagers, Coco Yoshizawa included, would follow at the next Games.
Country: Japan · Discipline: Street · Defining feat: First Olympic women's street champion (Tokyo 2020)
- Reigning Olympic champion
Coco Yoshizawa
Yoshizawa is the current Olympic street champion, taking Paris 2024 gold at 14 with 272.75 points, ahead of Liz Akama and Rayssa Leal. She ranks just below Nishiya only because a first-ever title outweighs a repeat one — on raw current form she is arguably the best street skater on the planet.
She arrived in Paris with almost no major sponsorship and has since become one of the most-watched names on the World Skate tour.
Country: Japan · Discipline: Street · Defining feat: Paris 2024 Olympic street gold at 14
- Ceiling-raiser
Arisa Trew
Trew won Paris 2024 park gold at 14, but her ranking rests as much on what she has proven possible: in 2023 she became the first female skater to land a 720 — two full aerial rotations — in competition, in front of Hawk himself, and later added the first female 900.
Those tricks reset the technical ceiling for women's park, which is why other competitors cite her when discussing where the discipline heads next. See how park compares in the greatest skateboarders of all time.
Country: Australia · Discipline: Park · Defining feat: Paris 2024 gold; first female 720 and 900
- Dual-discipline pro
Nora Vasconcellos
Vasconcellos is credible in both street and transition, but her landmark is business as much as skating: in 2017 she became the first woman on adidas Skateboarding's pro team and later received the brand's first women's signature pro shoe. She also won a Vans Park Series world championship.
She ranks on influence and video-part credibility rather than Olympic results — she never competed at a Games — and has been a steady advocate for growing the women's side at the grassroots level.
Country: USA · Discipline: Street/park · Defining feat: First woman on adidas' pro team; Vans Park Series world champ
- Founding figure
Patti McGee
McGee opened the lane everyone above her skates in. She won the first National Skateboard Championship title in 1964, turned pro in 1965 — the first woman to do so, on a $250-a-month contract — and landed on the cover of LIFE that May doing a handstand on her board.
In 2010 she became the first woman inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame, and she stayed a sport ambassador until her death in 2024 at 79. Every athlete on this list is, in some sense, working in a lane she opened six decades ago.
Country: USA · Discipline: Freestyle/vert · Defining feat: First US women's champion (1964); first female pro (1965)
- Technician and coach
Alexis Sablone
Sablone paired seven X Games medals and a 2015 World Skateboarding Championship with a master's in architecture from MIT, and represented the United States at Tokyo 2020, finishing fourth in street. Her ranking reflects longevity and technical consistency rather than a single headline result.
She has since moved into a leadership role as a coach for the U.S. women's program, and designs skateable public sculpture — a second career few competitors can claim. For gear that fits skaters across these disciplines, our skateboard size chart breaks down deck width by rider.
Country: USA · Discipline: Street · Defining feat: 7 X Games medals; 2015 world champion; MIT M.Arch
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- Leticia Bufoni
- Lizzie Armanto
- Sky Brown
- Rayssa Leal
- Momiji Nishiya
- Coco Yoshizawa
- Arisa Trew
- Nora Vasconcellos
- Patti McGee
- Alexis Sablone
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How everyone ranked them
Built from reader rankings using position-based points.
Women’s skateboarding is unusual among Olympic sports in that its founding figure, its most decorated competitor, and its reigning champions are separated by six decades and two entirely different value systems — pioneer credit versus contest hardware. Ranking across that gap needs a transparent method, so here is exactly how the ten names above earned their order.
How We Ranked Them
Placement starts with objective hardware and works down:
- Olympic medals — golds outrank silvers outrank bronzes, and multiple Games outrank one.
- X Games and World Skate/WST titles — the two deepest non-Olympic circuits, weighted by count and recency.
- Historic firsts — first-ever Olympic titles, first-ever tricks landed in competition, and first-ever professional milestones.
- Sustained influence — a decade near the top counts for more than a single breakout, and pioneers are ranked for the doors they opened rather than recent scores.
That is why Leticia Bufoni’s 12-medal X Games record edges Olympic silver-medalist Rayssa Leal, why first-ever champion Momiji Nishiya ranks above reigning champion Coco Yoshizawa, and why 1960s pioneer Patti McGee makes the list without a modern result to her name. Where two skaters are close, we say so in the write-up rather than pretending the order is settled.
At a Glance
| # | Skater | Country | Discipline | Signature record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leticia Bufoni | Brazil | Street | Most decorated female Summer X Games athlete (12 medals) |
| 2 | Lizzie Armanto | USA / Finland | Park / vert | First woman to complete Tony Hawk’s 360° loop |
| 3 | Sky Brown | Great Britain | Park | 2x Olympic bronze; 2x WST world champion |
| 4 | Rayssa Leal | Brazil | Street | Two Olympic silvers (2020, 2024); 2x X Games gold |
| 5 | Momiji Nishiya | Japan | Street | First-ever Olympic women’s street gold, Tokyo 2020 |
| 6 | Coco Yoshizawa | Japan | Street | Paris 2024 street gold at 14 |
| 7 | Arisa Trew | Australia | Park | Paris 2024 park gold; first woman to land a 720 |
| 8 | Nora Vasconcellos | USA | Street / park | First woman on adidas’ pro team; Vans Park Series champ |
| 9 | Patti McGee | USA | Freestyle / vert | First US women’s champion (1964); first female pro |
| 10 | Alexis Sablone | USA | Street | 7 X Games medals; 2015 world champ; MIT M.Arch |
How the Two Disciplines Are Judged
Olympic and World Skate scoring splits cleanly by discipline, and it explains why so few skaters appear near the top of both. Street is scored on a course of rails, stairs, gaps, and ledges: judges reward the difficulty, variety, and clean execution of individual tricks, usually across two runs plus a set of best-trick attempts. Small mistakes — a foot down, a hand touch — are punished hard because the tricks are so precise.
Park is skated in a bowl with steep transitions, and judges score a continuous run as a whole: line selection, amplitude, speed, and how big and controlled the aerial rotations are. That is why the trick-ceiling names — Arisa Trew’s 720 and 900, Lizzie Armanto’s loop — cluster in park, while the metronomic-consistency names cluster in street.
Why the Sport Skews So Young
Three of the current top six were 13 or 14 when they reached an Olympic podium, and that is not an accident. Skateboarding rewards fearlessness and fast motor learning, both of which peak in adolescence, and the Olympics set no minimum age. The entire Tokyo 2020 women’s street podium — Nishiya, Leal, Nakayama — was teenagers, widely reported as the youngest Olympic podium ever.
The flip side is longevity’s value: skaters like Bufoni, Armanto, and Sablone who stay competitive into their late 20s and 30s are, in effect, defying the sport’s own demographics, which is part of why their careers rank so highly here.
Where to Go Next
For gear that fits the skaters on this list, our skateboard size chart breaks down deck width by rider and discipline, and if you’re weighing your first board, see longboard vs skateboard. For the men’s side of the sport’s history, see the greatest skateboarders of all time, and for more offbeat athletic feats, the most athletic indoor sports covers related ground.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the best female skateboarder of all time?+
There's no single consensus, but on career hardware Leticia Bufoni has the strongest case: she is the most decorated female Summer X Games athlete in history with 12 medals, six of them gold. Lizzie Armanto and Sky Brown lead park — Brown adds two Olympic bronzes and two world titles — while Patti McGee is credited as the sport's founding figure from the 1960s.
Who is Sky Brown and why is she famous?+
Sky Brown is a British skater who won Olympic park bronze at Tokyo 2020 aged 13, then a second park bronze at Paris 2024. She is also a two-time WST world champion, having first won at 14 and then successfully defended her park title in São Paulo in early 2026 at 17. She is known for high amplitude and composure despite a serious skull fracture in 2020.
Who won the first Olympic gold medal in women's skateboarding?+
Momiji Nishiya of Japan won the inaugural women's street skateboarding gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics at age 13, beating Rayssa Leal to silver and Funa Nakayama to bronze. All three medalists were teenagers, and the result is widely described as the youngest Olympic podium in history across any sport, underlining how young the discipline skews.
Who is Rayssa Leal?+
Rayssa Leal is a Brazilian street skater who won silver at both the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympics and holds two X Games golds, from Chiba 2022 and 2023. Nicknamed the 'Fairy of Skate,' she went viral at age seven. She entered the 2026 São Paulo World Championships as defending champion but finished fourth after injuring her knee on her final run.
Who won gold in women's skateboarding at Paris 2024?+
Japan's Coco Yoshizawa won street gold at 14, scoring 272.75 ahead of Liz Akama and Rayssa Leal. Australia's Arisa Trew, the first female skater to land a 720 in competition, won park gold at 14, becoming Australia's youngest-ever Olympic champion. Sky Brown of Great Britain took park bronze, her second Olympic bronze after Tokyo.
Why does women's skateboarding skew so young?+
Skateboarding rewards fearlessness and rapid physical learning, both of which peak in adolescence, and the Olympics set no minimum age for the sport. Several medalists at Tokyo and Paris were 13 or 14, and the entire Tokyo street podium was made up of teenagers. That makes it one of the youngest-skewing disciplines on the Olympic program.
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