Life hasn’t changed much for Sky Brown since the Tokyo Olympics. At home in Los Angeles she has found something resembling routine: up early to surf the Californian waves where she can lose herself for three or four hours if the water’s good; back for breakfast before school, then out skating until dark with friends at Venice Beach or the giant Huntingdon skate park, trying to learn a new trick. She’s home at sunset for mum Mieko’s food. “She’s such a good cook,” Brown says with a grin. “She makes traditional Japanese food, which I love.”

The only difference now is that she gets stopped in the street by admiring fans a little more often, asking for a selfie or just to say congratulations – winning an Olympic medal aged 13 will do that to a person. “They usually say my full name, which is kind of funny,” she laughs.

It has been six months since that blisteringly hot day at Tokyo Skate Park when Brown made history as Britain’s youngest ever Olympic medallist, displaying not only skill but deep reserves of courage and resilience after falling on the same trick twice before landing her final attempt to clinch bronze. It is apt, then, that she has been nominated for the Laureus Comeback of the Year award, not just for her performance but for simply competing in Japan at all after a life-threatening accident in 2020 when she flew off the edge of a half-pipe and crashed to ground from several metres high.