Danny
Leon
Spain
·
Skateboarding
Date of birth | December 1, 1994 |
|---|---|
Birthplace | Móstoles, Madrid, Spain |
Age | 31 |
Nationality | Spain |
Career start | 2008 |
Disciplines | Skateboard Street / Skateboard Park |
Danny León’s introduction to skateboarding was purely coincidental. One day, at the age of nine, he peered out of his window to see a sports centre under construction. At first, he thought it was a swimming pool. Then – thankfully for us – he realised it was actually a skate park. After many evenings of watching the local kids ripping up the park, Danny convinced his parents to buy him a board, and the rest is history.
"I saw people skateboarding and I decided to try it out with a neighbour," he says.
His progress was fast and furious and, before long, he was nailing tricks old and new, and gaining a reputation as one of the local rulers of the now-defunct Móstoles skatepark. For Danny, the early days of entering contests around Spain was purely for fun and adventure, but, as the results and prize money started to increase, Danny realised he may be onto something.
Danny’s riding then reached a whole new level in 2013 when he took part in the X Games in Barcelona. “I was competing against the best in the world and saw what it took to win a big international competition. My mindset completely changed and after that competition, I started to win almost every event across Europe,” he explains.
As well as dominating the European circuit, it was during these successful years that Danny began to develop his own unique style that is defined by elegance. He can make even the most difficult tricks look smooth and clean, something that helped him to stand out from the crowd. “What I do seems easy,” says Danny, but of course, it really isn’t.
Perfecting these skills and tricks has taken years of dedication and required plenty of sacrifices. “Not seeing my family and friends very much, not being with the people I love, that’s what is needed as my priority is to skate,” reveals Danny.
These sacrifices have paid off as Danny has earned his stripes among the international concrete skating elite. He competed alongside the best in the world at the 2020 Games in Tokyo and again in Paris 2024.
However, in 2022, there was a moment when Danny feared his career may be cut short. Following a second operation to fix an ACL injury, he was unsure whether he would ever be compete at the highest level ever again. “It was the biggest challenge of my career. I wondered whether I would be able to skate against and win big tournaments. I was scared as didn’t know if my knee would be OK,” reveals Danny.
Fortunately, after six long months of work in the gym, Danny began to regain his confidence and was able to get back to what he does best, making even the hardest tricks look effortless.
Still a threat in every competition he enters, Danny is an inspiration to skaters across Spain and is now giving back to that very community. He runs his own skate school and hopes to one day have his very own skatepark.
In March 2024, Danny empathically secured his progress to the final phase of qualification for the biggest skateboard contest of all-time in Paris, France that summer thanks to winning in Dubai at the final stop of the latest cycle of the World Skateboarding Tour.