Aberdeenshire teenager Daisy Buchanan will fly out to the United Arab Emirates this week – as she represents Great Britain at World Skate’s Olympic qualifying street skateboarding event.
Buchanan, 18, a sixth year pupil at Mackie Academy in Stonehaven, is the only female street skater to represent Britain at the event, which will be held at the Aljada skate park in Sharjah from January 29 to February 5.
She is among more than 200 skateboarders from around the world who will be taking part.
Buchanan is bidding to add to the Olympic qualifying points she gained while competing at the first qualifying event for Paris 2024 – which took place in Rome last June.
Buchanan’s rapid rise in the sport – ‘We had a mini-ramp built in the back garden and that’s pretty much all I did’
The teenager’s rise from rookie skateboarder to Olympic hopeful has come in little more than three years.
Buchanan took up skateboarding at the end of 2019 and came to the attention of Skateboard GB in November 2021 when she won first place in the Battle of the Stone female Street competition in Manchester.
She has been training at Transition Extreme indoor skatepark in Aberdeen, as well as Graystone Action Sports in Manchester, in preparation for the forthcoming competition in Sharjah.
Buchanan said: “I’ve been able to take part in Skateboard GB’s Pipeline training programme in Manchester thanks to scholarship funding from the Inverurie Youth Sports Foundation – and my mum’s willingness to travel – all of which helps me prepare and train for skateboarding competitions.
“During the whole of lockdown, it was my interest in skateboarding that kept me going.
“We had a mini-ramp built in the back garden and that’s pretty much all I did until we could travel again.
“I then spent a lot of time at TX and Westburn Park in Aberdeen and learned so much from the amazing skaters that go there every day.”
Buchanan hoping to build on strong showing in Austria
Buchanan has won many local skate jams in Scotland and also competed internationally, including at the European Skateboard Championships in Switzerland and the World Rookie Tour in Austria last October, where she took second place.
She said: “One of my favourite places that I’ve skated in the last year was Innsbruck – I loved the way that the city has embraced skateboarding and actively encourages it.
“The main square in Innsbruck, called Landhausplatz, has been designed to function as a skatepark, as well as being a war memorial and a sociable area, so it’s a space that everyone can use – no ‘skate stops’ in sight. I loved that.”
Buchanan added: “Skateboarding is a really sociable activity but at the same time you’re also competing with yourself, to land that new trick or get on the bigger rails, so it’s an individual sport, too.
“In Scotland, you have to make the most of the few indoor parks that we have because of the weather and I’m lucky to have access to TX in Aberdeen, as well as Graystone in Manchester.
“I do some coaching of beginner lessons in TX and it’s great to see so many young girls taking up the sport.”
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