Kretzer, 11, Lands Body Varial 720 for X Games Gold

Mia Kretzer, aged 11, won Women's Skateboard Vert Best Trick gold at the MoonPay X Games League Championship in New Orleans. She landed a body varial 720 to seal the title. The result extended her record as the youngest gold medalist in X Games history.

Eleven years old, and gold again

The decision came high above the ramp. Kretzer wrapped her body through a full 720, turned twice in the air, and dropped clean back into the transition. The landing held, and the judges' score followed.

The crowd rose as the board settled under her feet. The run drew one of the loudest responses of the night on the vert ramp. Kretzer stayed calm and rolled away.

The championship ran at the Caesars Superdome, the first full league final of its kind. The event went down to the wire, with a Louisiana rider taking gold as New York claimed the overall X Games championship in New Orleans. Kretzer's trick stood among the sharpest of the weekend on vert.

Two golds in a single month, before her teens

New Orleans made it two X Games titles in three weeks. Kretzer won Women's Skateboard Vert Best Trick gold at X Games Chiba in Japan on 5 July. There she landed the first-ever alley-oop one-foot 540 in a women's vert contest.

The body varial is a full turn of the body against the board's spin, folded into a 720. Few riders attempt it on vert, and fewer land it in competition. Kretzer set it down at an age when most skaters are still learning the ramp.

She holds the record as the youngest athlete to win X Games gold, and each new title pushes that mark further out of reach. The record book keeps making room for her name. She is not yet a teenager.