The Loop

Meet the 13-year-old girl who just became the youngest X Games gold medalist ever

This is Brighton Zeuner. Brighton is 13, from Encinitas, California, and still has braces. She’s also the youngest gold medalist in X Games history. Fact.

On Saturday afternoon, one day after her 13th birthday, Brighton—who, according to her X Games bio, likes Beyoncé and writing in her journal and wants to one day drive a Jeep—dropped into US Bank Stadium’s 10,00-square-foot swath of concrete and, quite simply, crushed it. Sure, it was over twice her height in the deep end and, yeah, it was giving some of the best GROWN MALE skateboarders on earth fits, but concerns like that are for adults and Brighton is definitely not an adult...not even close.

It's probably been awhile since you were 13, however, so if this isn't quite registering with you, let's revisit some of the things you were probably doing at that age:

You know what doesn't make that list? Winning a gold medal on the biggest stage in action sports and then being grateful and humble and remembering to thank the fans when some washed-up pro who is two-and-a-half times your age sticks a microphone in your face on live TV.

More importantly for sports fans, however, is that in the crazy-video-flattened post-internet age where it can be tough to tell the true phenoms from the viral pan-flashes, Brighton’s performance made one thing very clear: She is the real deal, a badass female skateboarder who—if all goes according to plan—may not only change the way skateboarding looks at itself, but also the way the world looks at skateboarding...but first, how about that Jeep?