Skateboarder Trew, 14, wins historic Olympic gold medal
Skateboarder Arisa Trew has become Australia’s youngest Olympic gold medallist by winning the women’s park final in Paris.
Aged 14 years and 86 days, Trew eclipses Australia’s previous youngest medallist, swimmer Sandra Morgan.
Morgan was 14 years and 184 days old when she won gold in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
Trew has captured Australia’s 14th gold medal of the Paris Games in stunning style.
She recorded a top-scoring run of 93.18 at La Concorde in central Paris in Tuesday’s final, with Japan’s Cocona Kiraki (92.63) snaring silver and Great Britain’s Sky Brown (92.31) taking the bronze.
Fellow Australian skateboarder Ruby Trew, no relation to Arisa, failed to make the final.
Arisa Trew is the youngest on Australia’s team in Paris and the nation’s seventh-youngest Olympian in history.
Her sensational final run reaped gold, moving up from the bronze medal position.
The Cairns-born skater crashed on the first of her three runs and scored just 35.53.
On her second run, Trew rose into the bronze-medal position with a score of 90.11.
Trew then launched an audacious and daring final run which was rewarded with the gold.
Her gold-medal feats followed a shaky qualifying session when Trew qualified for the final ranked six of the eight skaters.
But her triumph continues an eye-catching stretch of form: she won Olympic qualifying events in Shanghai and Budapest to punch her ticket to Paris.
The victory for Trew, who started skateboarding seven years ago, follows her winning this year’s Laureus World Sports Award for Action Sportsperson of the Year.
Australia’s youngest Olympian is rower Ian Johnston, who was aged 13 years and 75 days old when he competed in coxed fours at the 1960 Rome Games.
#Skateboarder #Trew #wins #historic #Olympic #gold #medal