- Title: Freestyle trailblazer talks career, artwork and Olympics
- Date: 27th May 2021
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (RECENT) (REUTERS VIA ZOOM) (SOUNDBITE) (English) FREESTYLE SOCCER PLAYER AGUSKA MNICH SAYING ON HER EARLY CAREER: "So when I started freestyle, I didn't start that because of the money or competition. I never really even thought about going for the competition at the beginning. I just start freestyle because that was my addiction, every single day I just want to become better and better. I wanted to just go and see myself improving and once I was seeing that improvement I was just super happy and want to go for more different tricks, so this is how everything starts and then of course when I was training probably like two or three years I was like how will be awesome to have like plenty time so we can just train and you can go for the competition or something. But my first competition starts because my friends told me to create the video for Red Bull and I didn't believe in myself I was like not and I am not enough ood and they were like you just need to do it and then I did it and I qualified the top eight in Brazil so that was just amazing."
- Embargoed: 10th June 2021 10:25
- Keywords: Aguska Mnich Olympics freestyle soccer
- Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
- City: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Europe
- Reuters ID: LVA002EEQKKSF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Freestyle soccer star Aguska Mnich says her sport can be compared to street art - but that shouldn't stop it becoming part of the Olympics.
The Pole is hoping to regain her Red Bull Street Style title as this year's competition gets under way.
The tournament pits the best freestylers in the world against each other, and culminates in a grand final in Valencia, Spain in November.
Mnich won the title in 2018 and 2019, and was also European Champion in 2017 and 2019.
To launch this year's event, which has a series of qualifying rounds, Mnich teamed up with London-based street artist Captain Kris to create a grafitti-style artwork.
But Mnich is hoping for a bigger stage to showcase her talents on, and insists freestyle soccer should be considered for an Olympic slot.
The IOC is embracing 'urban' sports to try and capture the imagination of a younger generation, with 3x3 basketball and break dancing among new competitions for Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.
(Production: Iain Axon) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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