By Mimosa Spencer and Rory Carroll
PARIS (Reuters) – Fourteen-year-old Arisa Trew led a pack of teenagers who swept the podium of the women’s park skateboarding competition at the Paris Games on Tuesday, as the younger generation showed their dominance.
With her pink knee guards and ponytail, she sailed through the course to win Australia’s first medal in women’s skateboarding.
“It’s really cool because all the girls are pushing skating,” said Trew, who was joined on the podium by Japan’s Cocona Hiraki, 15, who took silver and Britain’s Sky Brown, 16, who won bronze.
On the high-pressure Olympic stage, the young athletes banded together.
“It’s normal to be nervous at such a big event, but all the girls are cheering each other on, and that helped a lot in terms of relieving stress,” said Hiraki, who started skating when she was five.
Six of the eight finalists in the competition, which took place by the French capital’s oldest monument, the gold-tipped Obelisk, were teens. The youngest athlete to compete in the Paris Olympics, 11-year-old Zheng Haohao, of China, took part in the preliminary competition earlier in the day.
“It’s crazy to me,” to have such young competitors, said Finland’s Heili Sirvio, a 13-year-old, who soaked up media attention at the event.
“It was so fun to skate with her today in the finals,” said Trew, of Sirvio. “I love hanging out with her, and watching her skate.”
Skateboarding prodigy Brown, who won her first bronze in Tokyo at age 13, sees the progression of skateboarding with her generation, but is still learning from the veterans of the sport. Her teammate, Andy MacDonald, 51, will compete in the men’s park competition on Wednesday.
“Honestly, I don’t understand half of the tricks he does,” said Brown, adding she could use some pointers from the old guard.
“I always said age doesn’t matter and he really shows that in skateboarding.”
(Reporting by Mimosa Spencer; Editing by Toby Davis)
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