ARMANTO Lizzie

Preferred stance
Regular (dewtour.com, 2020)

General
SERIOUS INJURY
In October 2020 she suffered a life-threatening crash after falling into the gap between the launch and landing ramps of a mega ramp. She appeared to lose balance just before launching from the mega ramp's take off, came off her board, flew across the gap between take off and landing, slammed into the wall of the landing ramp and fell roughly 20 feet to hard ground. She broke her femur and several of the wing-shaped parts of her vertebrae. "For me, getting surgery was one of the scariest things I could do, especially at this level - my leg, you need that for basic everyday life. But the doctor said the surgery went awesome." Tony Hawk described it as possibly the heaviest slam in skateboarding history. "[She] took one of the heaviest slams in skateboarding history, possibly the heaviest slam ever," Hawk said. "She basically flew 30 feet across a jump straight into a wall and then nearly 20 feet to the ground. She has been recovering quietly ever since, and just recently started skating again [in May 2021]. I told her, probably too soon after the fact, 'This is the biggest comeback story ever, especially if you are going to be in the Olympics'." (thefocus.news, 09 May 2021; Hawk vs Wolf's YouTube channel, 24 May 2021)

HERITAGE
She was born in the United States of America to a Finnish father and a US mother. In 2020 she explained her decision to represent Finland at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. "With the Olympics, there's quotas and each country can only have so many people. It's skateboarding's debut in the Olympics and to the world. It's such a big event. So much of the world's talent is in the US, I just felt like by going with Finland, I could open up one more spot. It just felt like the right thing to do for me. It's a very personal decision. I just want to share that with everyone in life, whether I'm doing it skating in the Olympics for the US or for Finland. I just want to share my passion." (sportti.com, 16 Jan 2019; olympics.com, 24 Jun 2020)

SKATEBOARDING FOCUS
She credits a serious knee injury she sustained in 2013 with inspiring her to pursue skateboarding professionally. "I was going to college at Santa Monica College, doing college because I didn't know what I wanted to do. I was skating but it wasn't the kind of thing where I'd be like, 'Oh yeah. I'll just do this thing for real'. I wanted that, I just didn't see it. When I got hurt I was all, 'Okay, this is the time. I can go to school later but I can't do skateboarding later'. So I got hurt and my mum was, like, 'You're hurt. You need to take more classes. You can't skate.' And I was, like, 'Nope, I'm just going to focus on skating'. I got better and I did therapy. Around then I got a manager and he helped solidify all my relationships with companies. After that. I don't know. When you're done being hurt you kind of have a fire under you to skate. I was, like, 'This is what I gotta do'." (hypebae.com, 25 Apr 2017)

In 2018 she became the first female skateboarder to successfully perform a 360 loop on Tony Hawk's 360-degree vertical loop ramp. (olympics.com, 24 Jun 2020)