Friends and classmates welcome Australia’s youngest Olympian home

Australia World

In short:

Cheers and hugs from friends, family, and classmates greeted Arisa Trew home to the Gold Coast from the Paris Olympics.

The skating prodigy says she plans to relax before heading back to school and the skate park.

What’s next?

Promised a pet duck for her achievements by her parents, Trew says the new addition to the family is on the horizon but not for about a month.

Australia’s youngest-ever Olympic gold medallist has been welcomed home to cheers from friends, family, and classmates. 

Arisa Trew arrived in the iconic green-and-gold Australian uniform at Gold Coast Airport this afternoon — the last leg of her journey from the Paris Olympics.

arisa trew in her australian olympic uniform

Arisa Trew returns home at the Gold Coast Airport.(ABC Gold Coast: Jessica Lamb)

The 14-year-old broke a 68-year-old record when she recorded a top-scoring run of 93.18 in the Skate Park Final at Place de la Concorde in central Paris.

Trew eclipsed the milestone by 98 days, toppling Australia’s previous youngest medallist, swimmer Sandra Morgan who was 14 years and 184 days old when she won gold in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.

In a pink helmet and skateboard, Aria Trew and her skateboard in midair during her event.

Trew won Australia’s 14th gold medal of the Paris Games.(AP: Frank Franklin II)

Trew was the youngest athlete on Australia’s team in Paris and the nation’s seventh-youngest Olympian in history.

Classmates from her school and training facility Level Up Skatepark joined her coach to embrace Trew as she walked through the arrival gates.

The skating prodigy said she planned to take some time to relax before heading back to school and the skate park.

“I’m really happy to be back on the Gold Coast, so I can see all my friends,” she said.

a close up of arisa smiling in suprise

Arisa Trew’s reaction when seeing her friends waiting to see her at the airport.(ABC Gold Coast: Jessica Lamb)

Promised a pet duck for her achievements by her parents, Trew said the new addition to the family was on the horizon but not for about a month.

She explained she would love to see the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games take a page from Paris’s book.

“I really liked the park in Paris because it was really fun and different and had features from all the qualifying events.”

a group of teenagers with skateboards

Zen Dickson, Summer Rackley, Arisa Trew, Eliza Pols, and Chinese Olympic team competitor Lilibet Zheng at Level Up Skatepark earlier this year.(ABC Gold Coast: Jessica Lamb)

Both men and women’s park skating Gold medallists hailed from the Gold Coast.

Keegan Palmer backed up his gold medal in the Tokyo Games with a score of 93.11.

For Trew, the secret to success lay in the same local skate park where both athletes cut their teeth.

“Both Keegan and I skate at Elanora and I think it challenges us to get better at skating and work hard,” she said.

Posted 7h ago7 hours agoWed 14 Aug 2024 at 8:42am, updated 6h ago6 hours agoWed 14 Aug 2024 at 9:11am