Olympian Nyjah Huston is on the road to recovery after a skateboarding trick went horribly wrong.
“A harsh reminder how death defying skating massive rails can be,” Huston, 31, wrote via Instagram on Monday, January 5. “Fractured skull, fractured eye socket. Taking it one day at a time.”
In his social media post, the Olympic bronze medalist shared images of some of his injuries, including a bruised eye, after falling in Tempe, Arizona.
“I hope yall had a better new years than me,” he added. “We live to fight another day 🙏🏽.”
After revealing his many injuries, Huston received support from a slew of fans, including a few athletes who know what it’s like to land themselves in the hospital.
“Heavy. Stay strong; we know you’ll be back,” Tony Hawk wrote in the comments section. Fellow Olympic skateboarder Gustavo Ribeiro added, “Feel better soon 🙏🏼🙏🏼.”
Ryan Sheckler also sent his support by writing, “Man.. prayers for healing brother!”
While Huston already represented the United States in skateboarding at the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 games, the athlete previously expressed his determination to compete at the upcoming 2028 games in Los Angeles.
“I’m stoked for the L.A. Olympics. I’m definitely going to try my best to be there. I plan to be there,” Huston told Reuters in August 2025. “It helps having the extra motivation that it’s in Southern California where I’ve lived for so long and where skateboarding really thrives. It’s SoCal living.”
It’s unclear if Huston’s fractured skull and eye socket will have any impact on his plans to compete in 2028.
Born in Northern California, Huston has developed a large, loyal following in the skateboarding community after learning the sport on his own through trial and error. By the age of 7, he had signed his first sponsorship deal, and at 10 he won the Tampa Am in 2010.
He has gone on to win multiple gold medals from the SLS World Championships and the X Games.
“We’re really just going out there and it’s up to us on what we’re feeling that day and how hard we want to push ourselves,” Huston explained to E! News in 2021 about skateboarding. “That’s the fun part about it compared to most other sports out there. There are so many ways to have fun with it and so many different things and ways to skate and ways to be creative and always switch it up and challenge yourself.”
Away from the sport, Huston has been able to experience some once-in-a-lifetime moments, including multiple appearances at the Met Gala and even a cameo in Green Day’s music video for “American Idiot.”
Ultimately, Huston can’t help but go back to his first love of skateboarding. After all, every skate is a new experience.
“We’re constantly looking on the side of the road for good stair sets or rails or ledges or whatever it is,” he previously told E! News. “We literally see things so differently, all the architecture and stuff. That’s the cool part about skateboarding. We’re out there skating stuff that’s not meant to be skated.”
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