12-Year-Old Mazel Paris Alegado Leads Philippine Skateboarding Squad at Nagoya Asian Games
Key Takeaways
- •Mazel Paris Alegado became the youngest Filipino SEA Games gold medalist at age 11 last year in Thailand.
- •Alegado won two gold medals at the 31st Mystic Sk8 Cup in Prague last month.
- •She finished seventh in the women’s park event at the previous Asian Games in Hangzhou and is seeking a better result in Aichi.
- •The Philippine skateboarding squad also includes Jericho Francisco Jr., Mak Feliciano, Elizabeth Grace Amador and Renz Gelig.
- •Margie Didal, the 2018 Asian Games women’s street champion, was not included in the Aichi roster for undisclosed reasons.
It is not every day that a 12-year-old leads a national team in a sport at an event as big as the Asian Games (Asiad), the continental multi-sport showpiece held every four years.
Meet Mazel Paris Alegado, the young Southeast Asian (SEA) Games gold medalist spearheading a lean but formidable Philippine skateboarding squad at the Asiad, set for Sept. 24-27 at Hall C of the Aichi International Exhibition Center in Japan. Aichi-Nagayo 2026 marks the 20th edition of the Games and Japan's third turn as host, after Tokyo in 1958 and Hiroshima in 1994.
Ms. Alegado made history last year in Thailand when, at just 11, she became the youngest Filipino ever to capture a SEA Games gold medal. In Aichi, she sets out to improve on her seventh-place finish in the women's park event at the previous Asiad in Hangzhou, China, three years ago. Young as that is, the sport has a track record of teenage contenders at the top level: at the Tokyo Olympics, Japan's Kokona Hiraki won women's park silver at 12, while Britain's Sky Brown took bronze at 13.
She heads into the Games on the strength of a double-gold effort at the 31st Mystic Sk8 Cup in Prague, Czechia, last month.
Ms. Alegado leads a five-strong squad composed of fellow Asiad veteran and SEA Games gold winner Jericho Francisco, Jr. (men's park), Hangzhou veteran Mak Feliciano (men's street), Elizabeth Grace Amador (women's park) and Renz Gelig (men's street). Skateboarding at the Asiad is contested in two disciplines: park, held on bowl-shaped courses with flowing curves, and street, which replicates urban obstacles such as rails, stairs and ledges.
Margie Didal, long the face of Philippine skateboarding, was not on the Aichi-bound roster for undisclosed reasons. Didal rose to prominence by winning women's street gold at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta — the sport's first appearance on the Asiad program — and later competed at the Tokyo Olympics, where skateboarding made its Olympic debut.
Even without Didal, Ms. Alegado is expected to step up in her place and carry the Philippine flag on the board. The Sept. 24-27 stretch in Aichi will decide the men's and women's medals in both disciplines, and with skateboarding remaining on the Olympic program through Los Angeles 2028, the Asiad has served the region's riders as a continental stage on the path Didal herself took from Jakarta to the Olympics.
— Joey Villar
