The gold medal is the ultimate dream for every athlete, but for 14-year-old Australian skateboarder Arisa Trew, it meant a gift she’d been waiting for. A pet duck!
Arisa Trew became the youngest Australian to win an Olympic gold on August 7. But there was one other thing she was excited about. “My parents promised if I won the gold medal I would get a pet duck,” she said to a reporter from Australian national news, Nine News, after her competition in Paris.
When asked why she wanted a pet duck, she replied, “Because they are really cute, then I can take it on walks and take it to the skate park. My parents definitely wouldn’t let me get a dog or a cat because we are travelling so much right now.”
“But I feel like a duck might be a little bit easier, and… I just want a duck. It will just be in my yard and I’ll get a little pool thing for it,” she added.
Trew scored a 93.18 on her final run, beating Kokana Hiraki of Japan, who was Japan’s youngest medal winner for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, at the age of 13.
Kokana Hiraki who is also world number one, won the silver medal, while Sky Brown of Great Britain won the bronze.
According to American weekly magazine, People, Trew told reporters, “It feels amazing having the gold medal around my neck. It’s been my goal since watching the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. That inspired me and made me want to come to this Olympics and get to the podium, which is, like, amazing.”
Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, was also present at the competition cheering on the participants.
According to Nine News, Trew picked up skateboarding when she was eight years old. “When I started skating there weren’t a lot of girl skaters around my age, so I skated with most of the boys more. Then when I got to 10 there were a lot more girl skaters,” she said.
On Tuesday night, it was reported by Nine News that Trew’s classmates gathered and slept in sleeping bags before waking up to watch Trew’s final.
