Paris Olympics 2024: Chloe Covell does Australia proud but falls short in Women’s street Skateboarding
Australia’s youngest Olympic competitor, Chloe Covell, has fallen short of becoming the youngest Australian to medal at a Games in a gravity-defying Women’s Street Skateboarding final.
The 14-year-old came into the competition as a medal fancy, ranked sixth in the world, but the pressure and emotion of her debut Olympics, as well as unreal skating from Japanese pair Coco Yoshizawa (gold) and Liz Akama (silver), proved too much.
However, Covell didn’t lose fans and likely gained plenty as she stuck true to the Aussie spirit, stubbornly putting her dreams on the line with aggressive tricks and gunning for gold.
In the final, judges scored two sections, combining the best of two runs with the two best of five trick attempts.
Covell’s first run didn’t go to plan early, with a fall on the second trip, but two huge jumps, including a kickflip that took her three efforts to get right in the prelims, had the crowd back on their feet.
She used a bar and the walls and cracked a huge grin as she finished the run.
The recovery saw her score a 70.33 to move into the silver position.
However, the top qualifier, Yoshizawa, laid down a marker from the start, acing her first run for a score of 85.02.
Covell looked to be putting up a big second run, riding the sword’s edge, but the stubborn 14-year-old was cut, face-planting after a huge board flip that would have sent her score soaring into the 90s had she landed it.
The Aussie entered the tricks section in sixth, with three Japanese skaters owning the medal positions.
The first of Covell’s tricks didn’t land and while she did land the second, it only lasted a split second as she tumbled off the board.
With just two tricks remaining, the Aussie still hadn’t scored one, and a fall on the fourth dashed her hopes of a medal.
Covell pumped the crowd for her final run but just fell at the last moment to finish with a score of 70.33 to claim eighth place.
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