Words by: Avra Kouffman

After winning the Women’s Soul Bowl contest at the S3 Supergirl Jam, Mimi Knoop is setting the ladies skate circuit on fire with displays of powerful skills, fast skating, and talent that are earning her some tidy prize purses. “Mimi looked like she owned it,” said World Cup of Skateboarding head judge Charlie Wilkins. “Run after run, she skated everything fast and powerfully, including all corners of the bowl while incorporating travelling airs.”

But modest Mimi hasn’t let her success go to her head: “I am honored to win,” she commented on her victory. “A lot of girls were skating well. I wasn’t expecting to take first place, but I just happened to stay on and connect some tricks which worked in my favour.”

We get the low-down on the burgeoning skate sensation with 10 facts you never knew…

1. She’s a military brat from Virginia.

2. She first started skating in Cuba in 4th grade.

3. In high school, friends named her Knoop Dogg: “For some reason it stuck . . . I’m not claiming gangsta, though!”

4. She loves art and graduated from college with a B.F.A.

5. After that, she lived on an eco-camp in the Caribbean and worked as a wine steward.

6. She was about to transfer to London when 9-11 shot down the hospitality and travel industries.

7. Instead, she road-tripped across the country “for lack of anything better to do”.

8. When she started skating seriously in California in 2002, she “didn’t even know there were contests for girls.”

9. Croatia, Australia and Iceland are three cool places skating has taken her.

10. She has a winner’s approach to life: “Do the best you can with what you’re given. If you want something, then go out and get it and get it with class.”
Since she has just won this year’s Pro-Tec Pool Party and Soul Bowl, this approach seems to be working!