KATHMANDU, July 12: Sometimes, freedom sounds like the rattle of wheels on concrete. Lemong, 20, a recent high school graduate, knows that sound by heart.
She was introduced to skating when she saw some boys skating near her school in Swayambhu. She was 16 when she first stood on a board. It wasn’t until she attended a skating gathering at the TU ground in Kirtipur.
She recalls, “That’s where I saw Lorin,” a 24-year-old professional female skater competing in international championships. She realised girls were doing it too.
She got bolder. In 2022, Lemong sold her hair piece jewelry given to her during her Gunyo Cholo, to attend a month-long skateboarding workshop in Butwal. She was with Lorin throughout the month. Learning a new trick excited her and made her take part in championships.
Our culture teaches young girls to walk, stay quiet and avoid risk; young women like Lemong are flipping that idea by rolling on skateboards.
“It’s still seen as a boyish thing,” she says. “When we skate, people call us rebellious and bad influences. But we’re just expressing ourselves.”
Even her family disapprove of her so-called hobby. She kept practising in public places like Basantapur with friends. When she began winning championships, her family started to come around.
“They saw it wasn’t just a phase. They saw I was serious.”
But the judgment from her family or outsiders hasn’t stopped. She remembers one Shivaratri when a drunk man confronted her crew near the skate park in Tokha. “He yelled at us, saying we were a bad influence. That we smoked and drank, and his kid had started skating because of us. It hurt because we were being judged for something completely different.”
She pauses, then adds, “Skating and smoking are two different things. It’s a personal choice. People just see our baggy clothes and assume the worst.”
On April 19, Lemong placed second in the 8th National Skating Championship — a proud moment, but rarely covered by mainstream media.
Across Nepal, girls like Lemong are reclaiming their new identities through skating. Initiatives like Girls on Board, a skateboarding club focused on young women, are creating safe spaces for them to learn and practice.
Female skaters like Lorin have even started competing internationally in events like Uprising Tokyo, The Jugaad International, World Skate championships and Ride Further tour. Girls like Lorin are quietly rewriting Nepal’s sporting narrative with every ollie and flip. And it’s proof that skating like a girl is something the world should celebrate.