Skateboarder Arisa Trew says some magical advice from her coach helped her create “insane” history as Australia’s youngest Olympic gold medallist.
Aged 14 years and 86 days, Trew won the women’s park in Paris on Tuesday to eclipse 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.
“I got told by a few people that I’m Australia’s youngest gold medallist, which is, like, pretty insane,” Trew said.
“And really cool, because that’s, like, who I’m representing and, like, it’s just amazing.
“It’s just, like, super cool that I have won the gold medal because it has been like a dream.
“I’m just, like, so excited.”
Trew captured Australia’s 14th gold medal of the Paris Games with an audacious final run.
In the bronze medal position before her third and last run, coach Trevor Ward pulled her aside.
“We’ve got some crazy things that we say to each other and I just said the crazy things that we say – skibidi sigma,” Ward told AAP.
According to urban dictionaries, skibidi is nonsense slang without a specific meaning.
But to Trew, it resonated.
“It’s like a joke that I have with all my friends because, like, it’s just, like, sigma is, like, the top,” she said.
“A lot of kids nowadays say that a lot.”
Trew then produced a series of daring tricks highlighted by a 540 – one and a half rotations in midair – which thrilled the sold-out crowd at La Concorde in central Paris.
The Cairns-born skater scored 93.18 to pip Japan’s Cocona Kiraki (92.63) and Great Britain’s Sky Brown (92.31).
“When I saw the score, I was, like, what? That’s crazy,” Trew said.
Coach Ward was overcome with emotion.
“I’m crying like a little baby,” he told AAP.
“Man, it’s the most amazing thing.”
Trew, the youngest on Australia’s team in Paris and the nation’s seventh-youngest Olympian ever, was stunned by her success.
“It was just crazy and so exciting and I just, like, couldn’t believe it when I, like, knew that I was the winner of the Olympics,” said the nation’s youngest medallist of any colour.
“This being my first Olympics, it’s just insane.
“I wasn’t really nervous because it’s just, like, I just needed to think that it’s another skate comp.
“And just to have fun with all my friends and skate my best but, like, all I really wanted to do was land a solid run.”
Her gold-medal feats followed a shaky qualifying session when she ranked sixth – only eight skaters contest the medal round.
But in the final, with apt music blaring including Guns N’Roses’ hit Sweet Child O’ Mine, Trew triumphed to collect a precious gold medal.
“It’s a little bit heavier than I thought. But it’s, like, beautiful,” she said.
Trew started skateboarding seven years ago and, three years ago, her 11-year-old self was inspired by the sport’s debut at the Tokyo Olympics.
“I always knew that, like, I wanted to be here and, like, podium and just, like, win,” she said.
“Because after the first Olympics, that really inspired me, like, watching all the girls, and it pushed me to just want to be here.
“And, like, I thought, like: ‘Oh, maybe I could do it’.
“And, like, when I, like, did that run, I just, like, knew that I could do it.”
The teen trumped a field where Brazil’s Dora Varella, aged 23, was the oldest and Finland’s Heili Sirvio, aged 13, the youngest.
The Finn summed up her reaction to Trew’s golden run.
“Banger, banger, banger,” Sirvio said.