Twelve-year-old skateboarder Chloe Covell eyeing spot in Australia’s Paris 2024 Olympic team

The 12-year-old daughter of a former NRL star could become one of Australia’s youngest ever Olympians after taking the skateboarding world by storm.

The 12-year-old daughter of a former NRL cult hero is flipping her way towards potential Australian Olympic history as one of the world’s hottest young skateboarders.

Just six years after stepping foot on her first board, Chloe Covell has emerged as one of Australia’s best skateboarding talents on a worldwide qualification journey that could lead her to the Paris 2024 Games.

It was watching fellow Aussie Keegan Palmer take gold in the sport’s debut in Tokyo that truly solidified the dream for Chloe, who would become one of Australia’s youngest-ever Olympians if she makes the plane to Paris.

“I remember being picked up early from school and I came home to watch (the Tokyo Games) with my Nan and my Dad,” she told News Corp.

“Seeing the tricks they were doing and how they progressed was so exciting.”

Covell is the daughter of former Cronulla goalkicking winger Luke Covell, a 153-game veteran who once joked he was too slow for the NRL.

Chloe Covell is aiming for Paris 2024. Picture: Alexandra Dickman

Despite her famous father’s footy chops, rugby league was never on Chloe’s radar. If anything her sporting dreams were of soccer, until a sliding doors moment at the age of six.

“I was just outside playing one day and the X Games was on TV. I saw (American skateboarder) Nyjah Huston who was skating at the time, he was in the middle of his run and I don’t know, it just clicked in me. As soon as I saw him skating that’s what I wanted to do,” she explained.

Now Chloe is on the fast-track to success, following a breakout 2022 that included an X Games bronze medal and Street League Skateboarding (SLS) silver on debut.

While her Palm Beach Currumbin High School peers were completing their schoolwork at home, Chloe played catch-up between flights to Brazil, Italy, Japan and America. “Lucky we have computers these days,” she said.

She has rapidly built a cult following online, boasting more than 46,000 Instagram followers and signing to a swath of sponsors, including Nike. Already, Chloe is well-versed in rattling them off.

“Nike, Bones, Monarch, Independent, Fast Times, Mob Grip – I think that’s it, hopefully …”

The comments section of her social media videos prophesise the Tweed Heads soon-to-be teen as the next big thing in female skateboarding – incredible given she herself still gets star struck when attending competitions.

“My idol is Rayssa Leal from Brazil. She’s 15 now, she’s a sick skater,” Chloe said of the Tokyo silver medallist.

“When I met her for the first time at X Games Japan she asked to play a game of SKATE with me and I was like … OK. It was sick, so sick.”

Just as her father used film study to prepare for his opponents in the NRL, Chloe keeps a close eye on her rivals’ progress through Instagram.

Luke Covell celebrates a try for Cronulla.

The online world of skateboarding is its own unique beast, and fans flock to athletes’ social media channels to compare their talents. It’s a year-round online competition to prove who has the best tricks, even before they meet for in-person events.

“I guess everyone does it to everyone. You’re watching and seeing what progress they’re making, what tricks they’re doing so that you can start progressing your tricks and trying to be better,” Chloe said.

Off the board Chloe profiles as your typical 12-year-old, but the shy demeanour is shattered once she drops in. At her SLS debut commentators were left baffled by the confidence of this Aussie first-timer they had barely heard of.

Now she is at the front of the queue of an exciting new wave of female skateboarders, pushing the limits of what is possible and making switch flip tricks and rails look easy – and she first learnt it all on the Gold Coast.

Just like Palmer, who grew up on the Glitter Strip before moving to the US, Chloe hopes to one day immerse herself in the American skateboarding culture, where the bulk of her fans reside.

But for now she’s happy flying, mostly, under the radar at her local Burleigh skate park.

“Every now and then I’ll get a couple of kids coming up to me and say, ‘Oh, didn’t you go to the X Games?’ So that’s been pretty cool,” she said.

“Just going to a skate park is what makes me happy – going to a new skate park, not knowing whether it’s good or bad, what the variation of obstacles are … that’s what makes it all so fun for me.”

Already a skateboarding pioneer, Chloe has the chance to make Olympic history as well.

If she can navigate a brutal qualifying process that features two stops in Rome and one in Dubai before a final IOC event at the end of the year, she will become the second-youngest person to represent Australia at the Summer Olympics.

At 14 years, five months and 19 days, Chloe would march in the Paris opening ceremony just three days older than Sandra Morgan was when she did so at the 1956 Games in Melbourne.

But due to the scheduling differences, Chloe would be 10 days younger come competition time in Paris than Morgan was when she swam alongside Dawn Fraser to win gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay almost 67 years ago.

Chloe Covell shows off her skills. Picture: Pablo Vaz

All of that to say, any colour medal would make Chloe the youngest Australian to stand on an Olympic podium, though she still has to get there first.

For now it’s all still a dream, but one that feels much closer than this time last year.

In April, Chloe received an invitation to compete at the X Games in Chiba, Japan, where she got to rub shoulders with her idols for the first time.

It was in Chiba that Chloe finished runner-up to Tokyo 2020 gold medallist, Momiji Nishiya, and ahead of Leal, who came in fourth.

Later in the year at SLS Las Vegas, Chloe was narrowly pipped by Leal in the final. It was there she truly announced herself to the skating world as one to watch.

“When I came in second in SLS – that’s been my dream contest since I was young. Apart from the Olympics, SLS is the biggest skateboarding event you can compete in,” Chloe said.

“Once I got one invited to the X Games, I started getting more invites to different comps and I was lucky enough to, in nearly every competition I went to last year, get on the podium.

“There’s not too many that are younger than me – I’m probably the youngest one that’s competing, or at least one of the youngest.

“Last year, even just knowing I was going overseas to compete was all a bit overwhelming but also so exciting.”

Tweed Heads skateboarder Chloe Covell. Picture: Supplied

Chloe left for Dubai on Thursday, where she will compete in the second of four Olympic qualifying events which begins early next week.

She finished seventh overall at the first event in Rome, banking crucial points in the jostle for an invite to the IOC qualifying round later in the year.

The top 48 skaters qualify for the play-in event and from there, the best 20 earn an invite to the Olympics.

In 2021, Palmer made history when he won gold in the Men’s Park event in Tokyo – the only athlete outside of Japan to top the podium in skateboarding’s first appearance at the Summer Olympics.

Chloe grew up only a few kilometres from where Palmer honed his craft on the Coast and will hope to compete alongside him in Paris.

But for Luke, who knows better than almost anyone the rigours of professional sport, he just wants what is best for his daughter.

“Last year was just a complete whirlwind,” he said.

“We knew as parents where she wanted to get to and it was that one invited to the X Games that led to another, that led to another and yeah, after that she finally got to put herself out there and show the world all the hard work she has put in over the years.

“As much as the Olympics is a goal of hers, that’s only once every four years. There’s plenty of other things that come with skateboarding, like getting a pro deck, a pro shoe and signing sponsorship deals and the like.

“There’s so much opportunity out there, especially for young girls nowadays. It’s up to her with where she wants to go with it.”