 | This article needs to be updated.(October 2022) |
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| Born | November 24, 1991 Covina, California, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 3 in (1.60 m) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 135 lb (61 kg) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country |  United States | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Skateboarding | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Leo Baker (formerly Lacey Baker; born November 24, 1991) is a goofy-footed American professional skateboarder from Covina, California, [1] now based in New York City. [2] Baker is transgender and non-binary, and uses he/him and they/them pronouns. [3] [4] [5]
Baker was born in Covina, California to Donna Baker and guitarist Marshall Rohner. [6] He spent a year of his early childhood in foster care, and became interested in skateboarding after seeing his foster brothers skating in their backyard. [7] [6] Baker got his first skateboard shortly after this, aged two. [7] [8] Baker lists his proudest moment as the first time he landed a kickflip. [9]
Aged eleven, Baker picked up his first sponsorship—from Utility Board Shop in La Verne—off the back of a video part filmed over two days by a skateboard instructor who recognised his talent. [10] In following years, Baker gained further sponsorships, and found success at contests around the world. [10]
Aged around nineteen, however, he quit his board sponsor, Element, while Billabong, another long-time sponsor, cut their skate team. [10] With the industry contracting following the global financial crisis, and facing pressure from sponsors regarding gender expression, Baker sensed that his career in skateboarding might be limited going forward and pursued a degree in graphic design. [7] [11]
While working a design job after graduating college, Baker filmed and released his first full part, entitled "Bombshell", through Thrasher Magazine in 2013. [12] He also continued to compete, winning three medals at X Games events in 2013 and 2014. Yet Baker still struggled to find sponsors, and so decided to join his friend Lisa Whitaker's new company Meow Skateboards, intended to fill "a void in the industry" for a skateboard brand run by women with an all-female team. [10] [13]
In 2017, Baker was the only skateboarder to be nominated for an ESPY Award in the "Best Female Action Sports Athlete" category. [14]
In 2020, Baker, Cher Strauberry, and Stephen Ostrowski founded Glue Skateboards. [15] As of 2022 [update] , Baker is sponsored by Nike SB, Glue Skateboards, Spitfire Wheels, Independent Trucks, Bronson Speed Co., Mob Grip, and Pawnshop Skate Co. [16]
Prior to turning pro and moving to New York, Baker worked as a graphic designer in Los Angeles, an environment they found unfulfilling; [2] however, Baker continues to pursue creative projects, including a collaboration with fellow NYC skateboarder Brian Anderson resulting in the release of Cave Homo ("Human Beware" in Latin, a pun on Cave emptor , or "Buyer beware") Volume II in which they were featured (Volume I featured Anderson), a limited-run zine whose inverse side features original works by queer artists, and a portion of whose proceeds goes to support The Trevor Project.
Baker also appears in the 2020 video game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 , a remake of the first two Tony Hawk's Pro Skater video games, [17] making him the first non-binary and transgender professional skateboarder in the series. [18] [19]
In 2022, Baker starred in the Netflix biographical documentary film titled Stay on Board: The Leo Baker Story, directed by directed by Nicola Marsh and Giovanni Reda [20] . This documentary details his life and experience as a transgender man. It focuses on his struggles as a trans man in the professional skating industry, as well as how these experiences have influenced his day to day life. [21]
Rune Glifberg, nicknamed "The Danish Destroyer", is a Danish professional skateboarder. He is one of three skaters to have competed at every X Games. He has a total of 12 X Games medals. At 46, he became the oldest skateboarder to ever compete in the Olympic Games and the first male skateboarder to ever compete in a park event in the Olympic Games when he represented Denmark in the men's park event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Nyjah Imani Huston is an American professional skateboarder. With numerous sponsorships and competition prize winnings, Huston is one of the highest paid skateboarders in the world. Huston won gold medals at the SLS Super Crown World Championship in 2014, 2017 to 2019, and has won 15 gold medals at the X Games since 2011. Huston won his first Olympic medal, a bronze, in the 2024 Olympic men's street event at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.
Tom Schaar is an American professional skateboarder. He was the first skateboarder to land a "1080," which is three revolutions, and was the youngest X Games gold medalist after completing the first 1080 in a competition at the 2012 Asia X Games in Shanghai; Forbes Magazine listed Schaar to their 2020 30 Under 30 Sports category highlighting the next generation of Sports talent. Schaar won the silver medal in the men's park skateboarding competition at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Jagger Geoffrey Eaton is an American professional skateboarder who competes in street and park competitions. He was the youngest ever X Games competitor at age 11, until his record was broken in 2019. In 2021, Eaton won the first Olympic skateboarding medal, earning a bronze in the men's street competition in Tokyo, Japan. Eaton won Silver in the 2024 Olympic men's street event at 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.
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Alexis Sablone is a goofy-footed American professional skateboarder, who ranked 12th in the world as of July 2021. She has competed in every X Games competition since 2009, the World Skateboarding Championship, and skated on the Dew Tour. Sablone competed in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, placing 4th in the women's street final. In addition to being a professional skateboarder, Sablone has a master's degree in architecture from MIT. She currently resides in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
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Funa Nakayama is a Japanese skateboarder from Toyama City. Nakayama won a bronze medal in the women's street competition at the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan. In January 2023, she became the first Asian woman to be featured on the cover of Thrasher.
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Aori Nishimura is a regular-footed Japanese professional street skateboarder. Nishimura represented Japan in the women's street event at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Louie Lopez is a regular-footed American skateboarder from Los Angeles, CA. He is of Mexican and Guatemalan descent.
Yuto Horigome is a Japanese professional skateboarder and two-time Olympic champion. He won the gold medal in the inaugural Olympic men's street event at the 2020 Summer Olympics, becoming the first person to win gold in men's street skateboarding at the Summer Olympics. He defended his gold medal in the same event at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Gustavo Pereira Ribeiro is a Portuguese professional skateboarder. He won the bronze medal at the 2019 World Skateboarding Championship on street skateboarding and won the Street League Skateboarding super crown in 2022. He participated at the 2020 Summer Olympics and the 2024 Summer Olympics.
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