Olympian Profile: Lola Tambling
Dangling by the Devon Expressway from Plymouth’s North Westerly corner, the small Cornish town of Saltash sits unassumingly across the River Tamar from its more sizable sister. Despite its relatively petite population, residents of Saltash have a 1 in 16,000 chance of Olympic skateboarding fame, favourable odds thanks to Route One family member, 16-year-old Lola Tambling.
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Despite her father Martyn being an already-established BMX rider, Lola swerved family tradition and began her skateboarding journey at 7, picking up a plastic Penny skateboard at the grand opening of her family’s indoor Saltash skatepark, Junkyard. Her first trick was a transition skating staple, the Rock-to-Fakie, setting in motion the wheels of her burgeoning career in the bowl; she’s since stacked up a laundry list of accolades and accomplishments, including becoming GB National Champion at age 14 and ranking an impressive 6th at the Sharjah World Championships in 2023. Back in 2020, her video part was hand selected by professional skater Nora Vasconcellos as winner of Exposure’s “Virtual Exposure” contest; now the pair share sponsorships with Welcome Skateboards and, more recently, adidas Skateboarding.
Lola joined the Route One Bristol store team a few years back and, after a brief hiatus, returned to claim a spot amongst our National division. Since then, we’ve seen her go from strength to strength, growing both physically and emotionally and handling the pressures of Olympic qualification with her trademark humour. However, despite her light-hearted attitude, Lola took a tumble before her run at Shanghai’s Qualifier Series event, resulting in a head injury that ruled her out of competition and meant she really had to turn it up a notch in Budapest. Never one to be beaten back by the odds, Lola went into Hungary hungry for a result, and managed to walk away with enough points in hand (combined with her World Skate Ranking) to qualify for Paris’ Summer Olympic Games.
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