Prodigy Alegado conquers Prague bowl

MANILA, Philippines — For years, Margie Didal carried Philippine skateboarding on her shoulders.

At 27, the Olympian and former Asian and Southeast Asian Games champion may have found her successor: 12-year-old Mazel Paris Alegado.

The Fontana-based prodigy reinforced her rise last week at the 31st Mystic Sk8 Cup in Prague, Czechia, sweeping gold in the women’s bowl and vert events.

Alegado, ranked No. 23 in the world, scored 79.67 in the bowl to outduel Spain’s Nahia Castro, also 12, who posted 78.00. Norway’s Maja Spatscheck took bronze with 69.00.

In the vert event, Alegado tallied 83.67 to top Castro again, while the United Kingdom’s Lilly Strachan claimed bronze.

The double gold came less than seven months after Alegado became the youngest Filipina to win a SEA Games gold, taking the park title in Thailand at age 11.

Alegado’s international run began at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, where she made the eight-skater park final as a nine-year-old and finished seventh. Didal, battling injuries, placed eighth in street and failed to defend her 2018 Asiad gold.

Now, Alegado sets her sights on the Asiad in Japan, the World Championships in Park and Street in Paraguay and the WST World Cup Street in Utsunomiya, Japan.