OlympicTalk · Jun 30, 2020
Female skateboarders’ Olympic path set by heroes’ fight for equality
Like so many skateboarders, Cara-Beth Burnside started on the sunny streets of Southern California.
Growing up in Orange, south of Los Angeles, Burnside remembers a skatepark called “The Big O” opening behind her house in the late 1970s.
She showed up on opening day and, to her surprise, wasn’t the only girl there. For Burnside, who would become an early pioneer for women in skateboarding and an influential member of the skate community, that visibility was key.
“I know that importance of girls seeing girls doing something,” Burnside said in a recent telephone interview. “It just sort of validates in your head as a female … OK, I saw it. Now I know I can do that.”