DURAN Mariah

Preferred stance
Goofy (dewtour.com, 01 Jan 2021)

General
TEAM USA BOND
She says she shares a close bond with the rest of the US skateboarding squad, having grown up competing with them. "The crazy thing is that we were all friends before the Olympics was even happening. We would visit each other in different places and stay with each other, we would sleep on each other's couches to go skate where they lived at. We were all really close before this and to be on a team is just really cool because now we get to travel and experience a moment like this together." (people.com, 14 Jul 2021)

GOING BACK TO HER ROOTS
During the COVID-19 pandemic she spent time living with her family in Albuquerque, NM, United States of America, where she had a concrete slab poured in her parent's back garden in order to build a half-pipe for her to train and skate with her brothers again. "Honestly, having the Olympics postponed was a blessing in disguise for me personally. The past few years have been an insane amount of traveling, insane amount of contests and also just other projects aside from getting ready for the Olympics. I never really had the time to take the time to understand where I'm at in my level of skateboarding and also what I need to do to help my body prepare for the Olympics. It's weird to say, but having this whole pause made me just realise that I have gotten into skateboarding before the Olympics was even an option. So it's kind of nice to know that the Olympics isn't everything to me, but it is definitely something that matters."(olympics.com, 17 May 2021; justwomenssports.com, 19 Nov 2020)

OTHER ACTIVITIES
She is part of a campaign in conjunction with Always which focuses on keeping girls playing sport though puberty instead of opting out. "I hope this message finds a young girl who's in that moment of being not too sure whether to give up or not. Because I feel like we take big steps by taking the small ones." (people.com, 14 Jul 2021)