Margielyn Didal has Been One of the Stars of the Tokyo Olympics

There are those who don’t view skateboarding through a competitive prism. Even skaters who do compete tend to have more camaraderie than a lot of other athletes. This has certainly been true at the Tokyo Olympics, and as such it makes sense one of the stars of the Summer Olympics has been a skater who finished seventh in her event.

Margielyn Didal from the Philippines was already a known name in skateboarding circles before stepping foot in Tokyo. From a performance perspective, she didn’t have the best Olympics. And yet, she’s been talked about as much as any skater there. Didal has sort of exemplified the skateboarding spirit at the Olympics. People noticed how much she was supporting her fellow skaters during the women’s park event, including being the first person to greet Brazil’s Rayssa Leal with a hug after she finished the final run of her silver-medal-winning effort. Since then, Didal has been getting an outpouring of love from Brazil.

This will be known as the "Margielyn Didal seal approval" 🇵🇭🇵🇭 pic.twitter.com/tWolMAQykq

— #Tokyo2020 (@Tokyo2020) July 26, 2021

This is just the tip of the iceberg. The official Tokyo Olympics Twitter account tweeted about her. She got to take a photo with Tony Hawk, make a joke about not recognizing him, and then see Hawk’s tweet about it go viral. We’ve written about Didal in the past at Dose, and since she’s only 22 we’re sure we’ll be doing it plenty more. That goes double now that she’s clearly leaving the Olympics as one of the biggest stars from the inaugural skateboarding events.

I was asked during an interview today:
“How does it feel to go to the Olympics and not be recognized by competing skaters, like Margielyn Didal?” So I had to explain that she was joking with her caption. My life is weird. pic.twitter.com/RvNQSFy7jt

— Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk) July 31, 2021