Paris Games 2024: Gold glory at 14, Trew story … like, what’s not to like?

Olympic skateboarding is child’s play. Let’s be fair dinkum about the greatest fascination around Arisa Trew’s giddy gold medal at the Paris Games. She’s 14. Like, dude.

Arisa Trew during her gold-medal-winning run, which sealed her place as Australia’s youngest Olympic champion. Picture: Michael Klein

Isn’t Arisa Trew meant to be at school? Do her parents know she’s here? Where’s her note? Has she done her homework? Where’s the nearest milkshake bar? What time does she have to be home? Who’s picking her up? How do you celebrate when you’re Australia’s youngest ever gold medallist?

Dude. Olympic skateboarding is child’s play. Let’s be fair dinkum about the greatest fascination around Trew’s giddy gold medal at the Paris Games. She’s 14. Like, dude. Fourteen. She’s extraordinarily skilful and her winning run was daring and audacious. She was delightful in interviews and handled all the formalities with a light-hearted aplomb. But all the way through you couldn’t escape one thought. Dude. You’re 14.

It was a joy ride for Trew at the iconic Place de la Concorde. Just as well she got up. She’ll be too old for this caper at the LA Games in 2028. Mapping out her retirement. Late teens in skateboarding are crusty old veterans wondering where the years have gone, crying themselves to sleep and quoting Shakespeare: “With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.”

She said: “It’s just crazy and so exciting. I couldn’t believe it when I knew that I was the winner of the Olympics. This being my first Olympics, it’s just insane. I wasn’t really nervous. I just needed to think it’s another skate comp and have fun with all my friends and skate my best. All I really wanted to do was land a solid run. It’s super cool that I’ve won the gold medal. It’s been a dream. It’s a little bit heavier than I thought but it’s, like, beautiful.”

Arisa Trew. Yew! At 14 years and 86 days, she eclipsed Sandra Morgan as Australia’s youngest medallist. Morgan was 14 years and 189 days when she won the 4x100m freestyle relay with Dawn Fraser, Faith Leech and Lorraine Crapp at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Trew is from the Gold Coast and, like, she’s going to be such a star of the 2032 Brisbane Games. If she can hang in there that long.

The silver medallist in Paris was Japan’s 15-year-old Kokona Hiraki. She did extraordinary well for someone, like, so long in the tooth. Bronze went to Britain’s 16-year Sky Brown, raging against the dying of the light. It was a giddy combination of professional sport and a pyjama party. Eight Gidgets were going for gold. There were lots of hugs and giggles and tears. The camaraderie and friendships were heartwarming and, like, everyone was just so super-stoked for everyone else and, like, OMG, perhaps they really let their hair down on Tuesday night and had a sleepover.

Trew after the medal ceremony. Picture: Michael Klein

Yew! Enough pithiness. You’re quite the 14-year-old when you can handle Olympic-sized pressure and pull off the sort of dangerous tricks she needed to join Australia’s gold rush. Trew’s triumph was Australia’s 13th. ­Incroyable enough to be third on the ladder, behind only China and the US, and above France and Britain. Yew.

I’m not sure 14-year-olds should ever be quoted. The daft young things don’t always know what they’re saying. I guess it’s a different story when you’re Olympic champion. What a unique life situation. You’ve realised a lifelong ambition before you’ve really started living. You’re just going along for the ride in your teens. Some rides just become, like, bigger, better, faster, higher and stronger than others. Trew had media commitments until nearly midnight. Way past her bedtime.

Perhaps more 14-year-olds should be interviewed. It’s all joyful simplicity. How are you feeling? “It’s pretty cool,” she beamed. “I love doing competitions. It’s my favourite thing in the world. It’s so fun competing and seeing your friends from around the world. I was, like, so excited to come to the Olympics with all my friends. I just wanted to do my best. I knew I could do it and, like, I was really confident in myself and all my tricks and just had to land them. I’m just so excited and happy and it’s crazy right now.”

She smiled her wonderful smile and had a crack at the national ­anthem. Does any 14-year-old really know the words? Girt by sea or something? Brown took a selfie on the podium that was totally going to get so many likes.

Trew bien. Trew beauty. Trew little ripper. A headliner-writer’s dream. She had the biggest and best bag of tricks of the finalists but had to string them together in one run. She looked the part. A hot-pink helmet, hot-pink knee pads and hot-pink socks. She fell on her first run but, like, that was so totally OK. She’d get three more.

Kiraki’s best run of 92.63 was leading when they started their final runs. Trew’s last roll of the dice was brave. There’s no soft landings in skateboarding. She pulled off a 360, McTwist, body varial 540, kickflip indy, switch melon grab and nose blunt. Don’t ask. I’ll get a nose bleed. The judges gave her a 93.18 and in the shadows of the Grand Palais in this most picturesque and famous part of town, Trew became the youngest Australian to stand on an Olympic podium, let alone the ­immortal top step.

“My coach was, like, ‘You’ve just got to go all out’. And I was, like, ‘Yep, who cares? All or nothing,’” she said. “I got told by a few people that I’m Australia’s youngest gold medallist, which is, like, pretty insane. I always knew that, like, I wanted to be here and, like, podium and just, like, win.”

The youngest Olympic champion is South Korean speed skater Kim Yun-mi, who hurled off her nappies and stormed to victory at the 1994 Lillehammer Games. She was 13 years and 86 days. The poster girl for youthful achievement is Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci, who was 14 years and 249 days when she collected her first gold at the 1976 Montreal Games. Golden oldies like to say age is just a number. It can be true at the other end of the spectrum. If you’re good enough, you’re old enough.

She finished her joy ride by revealing how she would spoil herself for winning. Well, how her parents would let her spoil herself. This is the most endearing part of all. A reminder of her beautiful innocence and youthfulness. Perhaps she would be allowed an extra scoop of ice cream after dinner? Better than that.

“My parents promised if I won the gold medal I would get a pet duck,” she said. “Because they are really cute. 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. It will just be in my yard and I’ll get a little pool thing for it and … I don’t know. I just want a duck.”