TRANSCRIPT
At the age of fourteen, most people are just trying to figure out what they want to do in the future or where they'd like to go for their vacations.
But that's not the case for Arisa Trew.
The young skateboarder has already made a legend of herself by bringing home the gold during the Paris Olympics, winning the skating event with a rating of 93.18 points.
She says she's proud of her accomplishment.
“It feels amazing having the gold medal. It's been my goal since watching the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. That inspired me and made me want to come to these Olympics and get to the podium, which is amazing.”
After a shaky first attempt, during which she fell off her skateboard, young Arisa came out determined in her second run.
Her performance and rating of 90.11 were enough to win her the bronze medal, an already remarkable achievement for someone her age.
But she says she wanted to give it one more shot because she knew that she could do better, she believed in her abilities and, because why not?
TREW: "When I'm in the competition, I just pretend like I'm still in warm-up or just skating with all my friends for fun. it just makes it easier than thinking that I'm in an actual competition. So when I fell on that trick I was a bit annoyed because I'd been learning it every single try and it was probably one of the easier tricks in my run. But I knew I could do it, and everything else in my run, I just had to land."
REPORTER: "So you weren't nervous at all?
TREW: "Not really any nerves.”
Of course the Paris Olympics weren't the first time Arisa rolled onto the big skating scene.
Born and raised in Cairns to a Japanese mother and a Welsh father, she showed a love for getting onto the surfboards from early on.
One of her instructors, Ado Comiskey, explains how she made the switch to skateboarding.
“She grew up as a young surfer and it was during a winter, six years ago, where she was cold in the water and decided to try her hand at skateboarding and yeah... Well, the rest is history now. She's been an incredibly quick study. She's just a prodigious talent. You're born with that type of ability and she could achieve anything, I think.”
Just by hanging out at the park with her mates and doing tricks, Arisa's talent was beginning to show, so she began training at the Level Up skate park.
That's where she met her coach, Trevor Ward.
Mr Ward immediately recognised Arisa's skills and she began competing in local and international skateboarding tournaments.
Mr Comiskey praises both Arisa's skill and her character, saying she's an inspiration for the younger kids that attend the school.
“What Arisa's done for the academy, I will start with, really what she does every day when she walks in the door here. She's just such an astounding human being. She's gracious, she's the coolest, funnest, raddest young person you could hope to come across. She's incredibly hard-working and she shows up in everything that she does, every day, which is all we could ask for.”
One of the highlights of her career - besides winning the gold medal at the Paris Olympics - was performing a 720 spin during a skateboarding event in Salt Lake City.
She was the first female skateboarder to achieve such a feat, which involves completing two full rotations on the board while remaining in the air.
The accomplishment was recognised by legendary U-S skateboarder Tony Hawk, who made a post about it on his social media accounts, praising Trew's skills.
Arisa says it's been incredible to have Tony Hawk following her career.
“I think Tony's everybody's inspiration in skateboarding. everybody knows who he is and he definitely pushed skateboarding for everyone. I've known him because he's such a person who's impacted skateboarding so, so much. And I've done some of his competitions at the Tony Hawk Vert Alert, which is really cool, and some of the X Games, he's been there and it's really cool that he was here at the Olympics as well.”
Despite all she's done, the 14 year-old remains a down-to-earth teenager who just enjoys going to the park, hanging out with her friends and skateboarding.
She says her favourite foods are french fries and ice cream.
She also dreams of doing even crazier things with her skateboard in the future.
But for young people at her school, and even across the country, she's already become someone to look up to.
GIRL 1: "So proud, can't believe she got gold. So amazing. "
GIRL 2: "She's the best."
GIRL 3: "Yeah, I can't believe it. That's amazing."
GIRL 1: "And especially cause she's one of our schoolmates and she comes to this school and we get to be around her.”
Young Arisa's triumph creates another success story in a summer Olympics campaign that will remain in the memories of all Australians for many years to come.
But she hopes she can get more people involved in the highly engaging sport of skateboarding.
“Everybody's who's watching, I hope they get inspired by everyone who skated today and who skates tomorrow and just like, want them to try skateboarding and try something new and just have a challenge.”
