14-year-old wins Olympic gold after receiving 'crazy' two-word message from coach
Topics: News, World News, Australia, Olympics, Sport
Kit Roberts
Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Alex Pantling/Julian Finney
Topics: News, World News, Australia, Olympics, Sport
An Australian skateboarder had a heartwarming exchange with her coach before becoming Australia's youngest ever Olympic gold medallist.
At the age of 14, most of us would be busy with school work, messaging friends on social media, crushes, or perfecting our Warhammer strategy.
Australia's Arisa Trew, however, has achieved something remarkable after becoming her country's youngest ever Olympic gold medallist.
Arisa, who is aged 14 years and 86 days, beat the previous Australian record holder Sandra Morgan who was 14 years and 184 days old.
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Sandra's record stood for some 68 years since she took the gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay in 1956.
In a fitting detail, Arisa's gold medal was also Australia's 14th gold of the Paris 2024 Olympics.
After her victory, Arisa's coach shared that they had a heartwarming exchange during the competition.
She had been sitting in the bronze medal position prior to taking her final run when her coach Trevor Ward pulled her aside.
So what was it he said? Some great motivational speech?
Well, in a way, yes!
Ward revealed that he had said just two words, which was one of many in-jokes they share together, urging her to go for it.
He said: “We’ve got some crazy things that we say to each other and I just said the crazy things that we say — skibidi sigma."
Explaining the phrase, Arisa said: “It’s like a joke that I have with all my friends because, like, it’s just, like, sigma is, like, the top.
“A lot of kids nowadays say that a lot.”
In her final run, the teen athlete went on to complete a series of astonishing tricks including a 540 - one and a half full turns and bagged the gold medal in the women's skateboarding park final.
When she found out she was Australia's new youngest gold medallist, Arisa was astonished.
She said: “I got told by a few people that I’m Australia’s youngest gold medallist, which is, like, pretty insane.
“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.”
Her coach said: “I’m crying like a little baby. Man, it’s the most amazing thing.”
Not only that, but this was also her first outing at the Olympics!
She said: “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,” she said.
“This being my first Olympics, it’s just insane."
She added: “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.”
Radical!