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Teen star’s humble request after historic gold

Teen gold medal-winner Arisa Trew

Source: 10 Sport

Australia’s youngest Olympic medallist, teen skateboard sensation Arisa Trew, has revealed her first request after sealing her historic gold.

Aged 14 years and 86 days, Trew won the women’s park in Paris on Tuesday (local time) to eclipse Australia’s previous youngest medallist, swimmer Sandra Morgan.

Morgan was 14 years and 184 days old when she won gold in the women’s 4×100-metre freestyle relay at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.

Cairns-born, Gold Coast-raised Trew sealed her win in Paris with a series of daring tricks highlighted by a 540 – 1½ rotations in midair – which thrilled the sold-out crowd at La Concorde in central Paris.

She scored 93.18 to pip Japan’s Cocona Kiraki (92.63) and Great Britain’s Sky Brown (92.31).

“When I saw the score, I was, like, what? That’s crazy,” Trew said.

Accolades for Trew came thick and fast on Wednesday – even skating legend Tony Hawk praised her in an Instagram post.

But appearing on the Nine Network after her win, Trew had just one, quite humble, request.

“My parents promised if I won the gold medal I would get a pet duck,” Trew said.

“Because they are really cute. Then I can take it on walks and take it to the skate park.

“My parents definitely wouldn’t let me get a dog or a cat because we are travelling so much right now. But I feel like a duck might be a little bit easier, and … I don’t know, I just want a duck.”

Olympics, day 11

Source: TND

Later, in comments carried by 10 Sport, Trew she thought there was hope at last for her pet request because, while her father had always been on board with a duck, her mother had been less keen.

“I said, if I like did win, ‘could I get a duck?’. And she said yes,” a smiling Trew said.

She also revealed that some magical advice from her coach Trevor Ward was key to her creating “insane” history as Australia’s youngest Olympic medallist.

With Trew in the bronze medal position before her third and last run, Ward pulled her aside.

“We’ve got some crazy things that we say to each other and I just said the crazy things that we say – skibidi sigma,” he said.

According to urban dictionaries, skibidi is nonsense slang without a specific meaning. But it resonated with Trew.

“It’s like a joke that I have with all my friends because, like, it’s just, like, sigma is, like, the top,” she said.

“A lot of kids nowadays say that a lot.”

She captured Australia’s 14th gold medal of the Paris Games with her audacious final run.

“When I saw the score, I was, like, what? That’s crazy,” Trew said.

Ward was also overcome.

“I’m crying like a little baby,” he said.

“Man, it’s the most amazing thing.”

Trew, the youngest on Australia’s team in Paris and the nation’s seventh-youngest Olympian, was stunned by her success.

“It was just crazy and so exciting and I just, like, couldn’t believe it when I, like, knew that I was the winner of the Olympics,” she said.

“This being my first Olympics, it’s just insane.

“I wasn’t really nervous because it’s just, like, I just needed to think that it’s another skate comp. And just to have fun with all my friends and skate my best but, like, all I really wanted to do was land a solid run.”

Her gold-medal feats followed a shaky qualifying session when Trew ranked sixth – only eight skaters contest the medal round.

But in the final, with apt music blaring including Guns N’Roses’ hit Sweet Child O’ Mine, Trew triumphed to collect a precious gold medal.

“It’s a little bit heavier than I thought. But it’s, like, beautiful,” she said.

Trew started skateboarding seven years ago. Three years ago, aged 11, she was inspired by the sport’s debut at the Tokyo Olympics.

“I always knew that, like, I wanted to be here and, like, podium and just, like, win,” she said.

“Because after the first Olympics, that really inspired me, like, watching all the girls, and it pushed me to just want to be here.

“And, like, I thought, like: ‘Oh, maybe I could do it’. When I did that run, I just, like, knew that I could do it.”

The teen trumped a field where 23-year-old Brazilian Dora Varella was the oldest and 13-year-old Finn Heili Sirvio the youngest.

Sirvio summed up her reaction to Trew’s golden run.

“Banger, banger, banger,” she said.

-with AAP

Topics: Olympics
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