Botho Losaba skating. Photo: Supplied
From watching skateboarders near his home in Soweto to representing South Africa at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, 17-year-old Botho Losaba hopes his journey will inspire other young people to believe in themselves.
By Someleze Ndede, bird story agency
03 November 2026
As he prepares to represent South Africa at the 2026 Youth Olympic Games, 17-year-old Botho Losaba hopes his journey will inspire other young people to believe in their potential.
His journey began close to home in Soweto, where he watched local skateboarders practising near a free Wi-Fi zone. Videos on TikTok and other social media platforms fuelled his interest. His father Butike Losaba bought him his first stakeboard.
The turning point came when he landed his first kickflip, a trick in which the board flips beneath the skater’s feet. It was a moment that made his progress feel real and gave him a reason to push further.
“I started seeing myself improving,” he said. “I wanted to get better.”
For Losaba, however, skateboarding is about more than learning tricks. It gives him a sense of freedom that he struggles to find elsewhere.
“When I skate, I feel happy, and I feel free. I feel like myself,” he said.
His determination has developed under the guidance of his coach, Sharne Jacobs, who has worked with him for close to three years. She has watched him grow from a young boy still finding his way into an athlete with ambitions of going professional.
“What stood out to me was how naturally he skates. He makes tricks look effortless and picks up new tricks very quickly,” Jacobs said.
According to his mother, Diane Modise, there is no skatepark near their home. Losaba travels to a park in another area, a journey of about 45 minutes, and practises after school.
He must also balance skateboarding with Grade 10. During the week, he usually trains for an hour to an hour and a half, extending his sessions to about four hours on weekends.
For Modise, skateboarding has become much more than a sport for her reserved son.
“Botho is just a kid who doesn’t talk. He’s very shy,” she said. She recalled what he told her about the feeling he gets from skating: “Mama, if you only knew the relief, the peace that I get when I skate.”
Watching him learn in the beginning was hard: “Being a mother, seeing him keep on falling, trying to do it, and keep on falling, because I didn’t have any knowledge about skating. But it was fun. It was cool when I looked at him starting to practise.”
In March, Losaba travelled to Brazil for the WST Skateboarding World Championships in São Paulo, where he competed to gain ranking points towards qualification for the Youth Olympic Games. Dakar will be his second international competition.
For Jacobs, Losaba’s qualification for the Youth Olympic Games carries significance beyond the achievement of one athlete.
“For the kids back home in Soweto, seeing someone from their own community reach a stage as big as the Youth Olympic Games shows them that this is possible for them too,” she said. “Where you come from does not have to determine how far you can go.”
Losaba understands the responsibility that comes with representing his country. He said the selection was difficult to believe at first.
“There are a lot of good skaters in South Africa, and I can’t believe they chose me to represent their country.”
He hopes to perform well in Dakar, but his ambitions extend beyond the competition.
“I really want skateboarding to take me far, and I want to inspire young people who don’t believe in themselves,” he said.
He is already thinking beyond Dakar, with his sights set on becoming a world champion.
“I know one day I will be a world champion,” he said. “Even if it’s not in Dakar, I’m going to do my best; I’m going to keep practising hard. I’m going to make it, I believe.”
bird story agency
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