Nyjah Huston is a sports star in the USA – but the skateboarder delivered a disappointing performance at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. He then expressed himself in a moving Instagram post.
Hardly anyone in the world skates more successfully than Nyjah Huston: The American has won a dozen gold medals at the X Games and is a four-time world champion. The Olympic Games in Tokyo, where skateboarding was on the program for the first time, should be the highlight for the 26-year-old. But in the end there was a disappointing performance.
Huston only came in seventh in the street final. The favorite fell, after which the hoped-for medal was out of reach. Gold went to the Japanese Yuto Horigome. At Huston the frustration was great. In an Instagram post, he apologized for his performance: “I feel like I’ve disappointed a lot of people.” But the skateboarder also used the defeat for an important message in which he spoke openly about his mental problems.
Nyjah Huston suffers from being too ambitious
“I am human and it is sometimes not easy to deal with these pressures and expectations,” wrote Huston, who has nearly five million followers on Instagram. His ambition causes him problems from time to time: “The disadvantage is that I am very hard on myself when I don’t skate well.” After unsuccessful competitions, he therefore often withdraws, does not speak to anyone or consume alcohol.
“Mental health is so important,” says Huston and announces that he will continue to grapple with it: “I’m working on becoming happier and just being grateful that I can live my dream of being a professional skateboarder.” In the end, he doesn’t do the sport to be successful, famous or rich, but “because I fucking love it”.
In the US, Huston is a star
Huston has been skating since he was four years old and has been a professional since 2008 – he was 14 at the time. Although skateboarding was only Olympic this year, Nyjah Huston has been a sports celebrity for a long time in the USA: he is one of them Justin Bieber befriends, works for charity and clearly exceeds the number of followers of other superstars on Instagram. He has a huge fan base, especially among younger sports enthusiasts. The sports magazine “Sports Illustrated” calls him “only-one-name-needed famous”: His first name alone is enough for everyone to know who is meant – as with LeBron (James), Serena (Williams) or Bono.
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I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
