Petaluma's Minna Stess is set to skate Summer Olympics in Paris.

Stess is following up a third place finish at the 2023 World Championship in park skating with a shot at an Olympic medal.

photo credit: Minna Stess
Petaluma's Minna Stess (right) pictured with her father Andrew,
after claiming bronze at the 2023 World Skate championships in Rome.

After a park skating bronze medal at the 2023 World Championships, Petaluma’s Minna Stess battled through Olympic qualifying to claim a spot in the Paris 2024 summer games.

"I swear every contest I got more nervous and more nervous and more nervous," Stess said through laughs.

The successful qualification campaign, spread across a number of competitions including make or break outings in China and Hungary, had a few bumps - falls really - for the 18-year-old Petaluma native.

"Budapest, I fell on my first two runs, so I only had one run left," Stess said. "And I don't ever do that. I don't know why I did that. It just happened and like, I cracked under pressure I guess 'cause...I couldn't land a run. And then I got myself to stay calm and...I did it. So that's all that matters."

Global IT crash permitting, Stess plans to fly to Paris in time to take part in the opening ceremony for Team USA; but she said it won’t be her first time meeting fellow Olympians.

"I went to the team USA media summit," Stess said. "So I met a lot of different people, which was really cool and I'm happy I got to experience that. It was a little stressful because I was like doing all this media stuff, but I wasn't sure if I was going to the Olympics. So I was just like, oh my God, I'm doing all this media stuff, I really hope I'm going. So I'm happy I made it."

"When we get there, there's like a Team USA welcome experience," Stess said. "We have go and be there for like three hours. Trying all of the clothes, trying our opening ceremony, closing ceremony, trying our uniforms."

Stess said she’s started adjusting to all the media attention and routine...about as well as a teenager can.

"At first when I...went to the media summit, it was like a lot [be]cause it was interviews from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM and I had never done that before," Stess said. "Like that was definitely something that was a little hard for me at first. Like especially starting at eight in the morning is like so early for me."

"I'm not used to waking up that early and also having to go straight on camera is just like crazy," Stess said. "I think that honestly helped me prepare for all the media stuff I'm doing now. Like, that was probably the worst of the worst because it was like...a speed run. Like I was going seven minutes in each room just doing interviews, interviews, pictures, interviews, pictures. Like, it was insane."

Stess said she’s excited to be bunked with friend and fellow Team USA skater Paige Heyn.

"It's like two people per bedroom and then we're in like an apartment with four bedrooms, so that's like eight people," Stess said. "So apparently there's some taekwondo people in one of the rooms already...I'm just excited and I didn't honestly don't know [what] to expect."

Asked for her plans in Paris outside of training and competition:

"I'm going have a lot of time," Stess said. "So I definitely want to skate around the city and stuff. And my brother's coming too and like, I've honestly really never had that much time to skate with him. And he's like talking about skating around Paris and I'm like, oh, I want to skate with my brother!"

"Like he's the whole reason I'm here basically," Stess said. "So hopefully there's a lot of cool spots and definitely just a lot of things that I don't even know that's there. So my whole family is going like even...my grandma. So it's going to be definitely a good time, and I'm just really excited to just...go and experience everything or try to experience everything."

When it comes to the question of advice for anyone, and especially young women thinking about picking up a board or skating at the park, Minna said:

"I always have such a trouble, like a hard time with this question," Stess said. "I feel like it's so hard to explain. Like you can't really explain like, oh, how to be this or that, but I feel like honestly the best advice I can give is literally just, you know, be yourself and find people that you connect with through skating or you know, just people that are people that don't skate, but like surrounding yourself with a good community."

"Outside of contests...I have a good group of friends back in Petaluma and you know, we just all hang out and skate," Stess said. "Like even if I'm not skating, I'm still there hanging out and they're skating and it's just like such a...fun thing...no sports are like that."

You can catch Petaluma’s Minna Stess competing for Team USA in park skateboarding at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympiad starting Tuesday, August 6th.