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Ryan Sheckler: Gravity Games
built 179 days ago
To say 17 year-old Ryan Sheckler is ahead of his time would be an understatement. Besides striking gold at the X-Games in 2003 (he was 13) he landed MVP at least year’s GvR and more recently has three-peated at the Dew Cup. The kid’s collected more hardware than skate pros twice his age. Like most famous athletes, Sheckler has been dealt cards, both good and bad, that have sped up the maturation process. The good hand has consisted of being one of the most talented skaters in the world, having a hit reality show with MTV, and accumulating a boy-band -esque groupie following. The bad, his Life of Ryan TV show has well documented his parents divorce, a complicated and emotional time for the Etnies golden boy. Read up on how Ryan’s stepped up.
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Ryan Sheckler was the youngest to ever win a pro event and the youngest to fetch the gold medal at the X Games. Today, four years later, he is 17 years old – and his dream of becoming one of the greatest skate pros of all time seems to be pretty damn close.
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Ryan Sheckler holds first place medals in the X Games, World Cup Skateboarding Championships, AST Dew Tour, Globe World Cup and Gravity Games. He is famous for his unique "Shecklair" move, a combination of a kick-flip and an Indy air completed with the legs fully extended.
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Luckily Ryan can coordinate his mental faculties and leg-work better during skating than he can afterwards. Just how well became clear to Gretchen and other observers no later than 1997: that’s when seven-year old Ryan – putting his “impressive” sporting experience to the test – won his first state championship title in skateboarding. A few years later the considerably older competitors at the X Games 2003 underwent a similarly humbling experience: there the Californian won the X Games gold medal as the youngest athlete in the Games’ history – he had only just turned 13. And Gretchen? She was now his manager and extremely busy dealing with the ever-increasing number of sponsor requests and event invitations.
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Born December 30, 1989 in San Clemente, California, Ryan first started skating at age of four in his driveway with the neighborhood kids. Three years later, his new backyard mini-ramp helped him improve by leaps and bounds, soon propelling him into the local skatepark scene and a CASL State Championship victory every year he entered. In fact, Ryan's talent at nabbing contest wins is snowballing today. Right after turning pro in early 2003, he quickly proceeded to bag back-to-back world-class professional events like the Slam City Jam, Triple Crown New Jersey, Gravity Games and the X Games.
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A native of San Clemente, California, Sheckler won Slam City in 2003 in his first year of professional skateboarding at the age of 13. He has won several events including the XGames and Gravity Games.
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