Letícia Bufoni e Silva (born April 13, 1993)[1] is a Brazilian-American[2] professional street skateboarder. She is a six-time X Games gold medalist.[3]
Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Birth name | Letícia Bufoni e Silva | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | [1] São Paulo, Brazil | April 13, 1993||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Occupation | Skateboarder | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Years active | 2002–present | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 5 ft 3 in (1.60 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 97 lb (44 kg) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Country | Brazil | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Skateboarding | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turned pro | 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Early life
editBufoni was born in São Paulo.[1] She began skating at age nine,[4] and her grandmother bought her first skateboard when she was 11.[5]
"I grew up in the street playing sports all the time. We didn't have computers, no smartphones. All of the kids started skating, so I did too."[6]
"My dad broke my board so I wouldn't skate anymore. I started to skateboard when I was nine years old; I was skating with all the guys in my neighborhood, and he was mad at me because I was the only girl in the middle of 10 guys. He smashed my board in front of me and said; You're not skating anymore, ever again."[7] Her father eventually relented.[6]
At the age of 14, Bufoni moved to the United States with older friends.[8] She attended Hollywood High School, but left after missing so much school that she was in danger of being expelled.[9]
Career
editIn 2007, Bufoni competed in her first X Games at the age of 14 in Los Angeles.[9]
She is a five-time X Games gold medalist. She tied Elissa Steamer's decade-old record for most gold in Women's SKB Street with her win at XG Shanghai 2019. Overall she earned six straight medals in X Games Women's SKB Street (2010–2014) and the title at Shanghai 2019.[10]
She has become one of the world's best-known and most influential action sports athletes.[10] Bufoni was ranked the #1 women's street skateboarder by World Cup of Skateboarding four years in a row 2010–2013 and appeared in [11] The Guinness Book of World Records (2017) for the "Most Wins Of The World Cup of Skateboarding. In 2013, she was nominated for an ESPY Award – Best Female Action Sports Athlete.
In 2015, she won the first Street League Skateboarding Women's SLS Super Crown World Championship in Chicago, IL.[12] She also appeared in the ESPN Magazine – The Body Issue.[13] She was also the first female skater to sign for Nike SB in 2015.[14]
In 2018, Forbes named Bufoni one of The Most Powerful Women In International Sports for 2018 (#25)[15] and made Sports Pro Media's list for The World's Most Marketable Athletes for 2018 (#41).[16] Further in 2018, she was named to the Forbes Brazil "Under 30" list.[17]
In 2022, Bufoni set a world record (verified by Guinness World Records) for highest skateboard grind outside the back of a flying aircraft. This happened when the aircraft was flying over Merced, California. A video of this went viral in 2023. The aircraft was a C-130 transport plane, and was flying at an altitude of 9,022 feet when Bufoni did the skateboard grind.[18]
Bufoni is the official athlete representative for World Skate, the International Olympic Committee-recognized governing body for Skateboarding.[10]
Racing
editA racing fan since her youth, Bufoni raced go-karts at a track on the parking lot of the Shopping Aricanduva mall, which was located near a skate park that she grew up on. She eventually stopped to focus on skateboarding when she moved to America,[19][20] but occasionally dabbled in supercar racing when available.[21][22] She built a drift car in 2020.[19]
In 2022, as she scaled back her skating career to focus on other projects, she began racing in Nitro Rallycross' side-by-side class.[19] Despite racing without practice, Bufoni finished seventh and sixth in her first weekend at ERX Motor Park.[23][24] She ran the full 2023–24 Nitrocross SxS season and placed fifth in points.[25]
Bufoni made her desert racing at the NORRA 500 in October 2023, where she shared a modified Nissan Frontier with Chris Forsberg. The two won the Stock Production class.[26]
Personal life
editOn April 7, 2021, Bufoni became a citizen of the United States.[27]
Competitions
edit- 2015 – 1st Place: Far'n High Women's Finals – Paris, France
- 2015 – 1st Place: Excellent Mystic Skate Cup Women's Street – Prague, Czech Republic
- 2015 – 1st Place: Street League Super Crown Women's Finals – Chicago, USA
- 2016 – 1st Place: Far'n' High Women's Finals – Paris, France – Paris, France
- 2016 – 1st Place: Mystic Sk8 Cup Women's Open – Prague, Czech Republic
- 2016 – 2nd Place: Street League Super Crown Women's Finals – Los Angeles, USA
- 2017 – 3rd Place: X Games Minneapolis Skateboard Street – Minneapolis, USA
- 2017 – 2nd Place: Street League Super Crown Women's Finals – Los Angeles, USA
- 2018 – 1st Place: X Games Norway Skateboard Street – Oslo, Norway
- 2018 – 2nd Place: World Cup of Skateboarding Street – Vigo, Spain
- 2018 – 2nd Place: X Games Skateboard Street – Sydney, Australia
- 2019 – 1st Place: X Games Skateboard Street – Shanghai, China
- 2019 – 2nd Place: Dew Tour – Long Beach, California, USA
- 2021 – 1st Place: X Games Skateboard Street - Vista, California, USA
Awards
edit- Nickelodeon 2016 Kids' Choice Sports – Queen Of Swag
- Cartoon Network 2014 Hall of Game Awards – She Got Game
In media
editBufoni is a playable character in the video game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5. She also appears in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, an enhanced remake of the first two Pro Skater games with an updated roster of playable skaters.
Bufoni plays a featured role in the music video for "Snapback" by Old Dominion.
References
edit- ^ a b c "International Skateboarding Federation - Leticia Bufoni". Archived from the original on January 7, 2016. Retrieved January 18, 2016.
- ^ "USCIS on LinkedIn: #NewUSCitizen | 13 comments". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved September 22, 2021.
- ^ "FNDMNTLS - Leticia Bufoni". Beats by Dre. Retrieved July 23, 2019.
- ^ Ain, Morty (July 6, 2015). "Skateboarder Leticia Bufoni bares all". ESPN. Retrieved September 12, 2015.
- ^ Goyanes, Cristina (June 2, 2014). "Skateboarder Leticia Bufoni's Journey to the X Games Austin". shape.com. Retrieved September 12, 2015.
- ^ a b "The "GIZMO" Interviews: Leticia Bufoni". www.thrashermagazine.com. Retrieved July 23, 2019.
- ^ "Skateboarder Leticia Bufoni: 'I'm going to skate forever'". ESPN.com. July 6, 2015. Retrieved July 23, 2019.
- ^ "What It Takes to Be a Hard-Core Skateboarder". Shape. Retrieved September 22, 2021.
- ^ a b Hendrixx, Eric (August 25, 2015). "Leticia Bufoni on the Perils of Skating Naked". rollingstone.com. Retrieved September 12, 2015.
- ^ a b c "Leticia Bufoni's official X Games athlete biography". X Games. Archived from the original on February 10, 2019. Retrieved July 23, 2019.
- ^ Book, Guinness (April 1, 2017). "Most wins World Cup Skateboarding World Rankings (Street, female)". guinnessworldrecords.com. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
- ^ League, Street (October 4, 2015). "Leticia Bufoni Makes History As The First Womens Super Crown Champ". streetleague.com. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
- ^ Ain, Morty (July 6, 2015). "Leticia Bufoni: 'I'm going to skate forever'". espn.com. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
- ^ Jacqui Palumbo. "New York's radical female and non-binary skateboarders -- in photos". CNN. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
- ^ Glass, Alana (March 27, 2015). "The Most Powerful Women In International Sports". forbes.com. Retrieved September 10, 2018.
- ^ Long, Michael (September 5, 2018). "Paul Pogba named world's most marketable athlete of 2018". Sportspromedia.com. Retrieved September 10, 2018.
- ^ Magazine, Forbes (December 19, 2018). "10 destaques brasileiros abaixo dos 30 anos". forbes.uol.com.br. Retrieved December 12, 2018.
- ^ Gardner, Steve. "Skateboarder Leticia Bufoni sets world record with jump from plane at 9,000 feet". USA TODAY.
- ^ a b c "Leticia Bufoni hace historia con su proyecto Sky Grind" [Leticia Bufoni makes history with her Sky Grind project]. elpatín (in Spanish). August 11, 2022. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
- ^ LoRé, Michael (May 24, 2023). "Trailblazing Skateboarder Leticia Bufoni Has Her Sights Set On Motorsports". Forbes. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
- ^ "Clara Aguilar and Leticia Bufoni Race at Exotics Racing". Exotics Racing. July 6, 2015. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
- ^ "Leticia Bufoni". Exotics Racing. September 11, 2020. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
- ^ "2022-2023 Nitro RX(Rallycross) Round 3 Result & Photo". Yokohama Rubber Company. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
- ^ Teo Van Runkle, Michael (March 27, 2023). "Meet the Next Generation of Women in Nitro Rallycross". Men's Journal. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
- ^ "Nitrocross 2023/2024 Season Series". Nitrocross. March 5, 2024. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
- ^ Anderson, Micah (February 7, 2024). "Nissan Frontier Forsberg Edition Is Based On A Desert Racing Dream". Off Road Xtreme. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
- ^ "USCIS on LinkedIn: #NewUSCitizen". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved April 8, 2021.
External links
edit- Letícia Bufoni at Olympics.com
- Letícia Bufoni at Olympedia
- Letícia Bufoni at the X Games (archive)
- Leticia Bufoni at Red Bull
- This is Leticia Bufoni's life less ordinary on redbull.com
- Red Bull Roller Coaster
- The GIZMO interviews: Leticia Bufoni on Thrasher
- Leticia Bufoni: I'm going to skate forever on ESPN
- On the perils of skating naked for Rolling Stone
- Leticia Bufoni in the Nine Club with Chris Roberts
- Letícia Bufoni on Instagram