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Australia’s youngest Olympic medal winner has held her title for 68 years, but two teenage Queensland skateboarding prodigies have their eyes on breaking the record.
Sandra Morgan-Beavis and Arisa Trew are generations apart, but their respective journeys to Olympic success have some clear parallels.
Both top-level international athletes were inspired by role models in their pre-teen years.
For Morgan-Beavis, a speech by Australian sprinter Marjorie Jackson-Nelson ignited a passion that led to her winning a gold medal with the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team at the 1956 Melbourne games.
She was only 14 years old at the time.
Trew remembers gathering with friends in front of the TV to watch skateboarding debut at the 2021 Olympics.
“I thought, I really want to be there… I really want to do it,” he said.
Within three years, the 13-year-old skater was pulling off tricks no other woman in the world could do.
The Gold Coast teenager made history at last year’s X-Games when she became the first woman to perform a “720”, a challenging move that involves two full rotations in the air, and took home two gold medals .
Trew, currently ranked 11th in the world, is preparing for two more competitions to cement his place among the top 20 park skaters who will qualify for the Paris Olympics later this year.
“Park” competitions are held on a course consisting of a hollowed-out concrete bowl, with several different elements including ramps, quarter pipes and bumps.
“Something drastic would have to happen for her to not make the Olympics,” said Trevor Ward, Trew’s coach.
Beyond that, Trew’s goal is to break the medal record set by Morgan-Beavis.
“My ultimate goal for the Olympics is a gold medal or a podium… I just have to train very hard,” he said.
With her birthday in May, Trew will be 14 at the Paris Games, but three months younger than Morgan-Beavis when she won gold in 1956.
The next generation dominates the ranks
The majority of Australian Olympic skate hopefuls are under 18, and the trend of competing much younger has emerged since Coach Ward was a professional skater.
“Part of it is the fear factor, they are able to achieve it and improve very quickly compared to older people,” he said.
“You get to a point in your skating career where you ask yourself, ‘Do I want to get hurt so I can try that much harder?'”
Ward said the inclusion of skateboarding in the Olympics boosted participation in the sport and retired professional skaters were now training the next generation.
“It’s really different from when I went through, I didn’t turn pro until I was 23, whereas kids are phenomenal at 10,” he said.
“These kids just see everything on the internet and then they just do it… whereas when I was a kid, we had to wait months for magazines to get from America to Australia.”
The Olympic dream about to come true
Fellow Gold Coast skater Chloe Covell, 14, is another local hoping to break the country’s old Olympic medal record.
A few months older than Trew, the Tweed Heads venue is fourth in the qualifying rankings for the “street” event, which focuses more on using an urban environment as a playground to perform tricks over obstacles such as stairs, ledges, curbs and railing.
“When I was a kid and I started skating and got better and better, I definitely had hopes of going to the Olympics one day,” Covell said.
“Now that my dream could come true… it’s super amazing and exciting to think about it,” he said.
“I’m pretty confident because I’m in a good place.”
A circular journey
Morgan-Beavis said winning an Olympic medal at age 14 was “indescribable” and had a huge impact on the rest of her life.
“It made me grow up very quickly,” he said.
“My advice to (younger Olympians) is to enjoy it and don’t let other people’s opinions lead you astray. Sometimes people can be cruel with their words, just don’t listen to them.”
Morgan-Beavis said it was difficult dealing with the Australian team’s detractors, who resented her being in the final because of her age.
“Even when I was walking down the road to go to my race, they told me ‘this is up to you’… it was a big responsibility,” he said.
After winning gold, Morgan-Beavis met Marjorie Jackson-Nelson and told her about the inspiration he had gained from her speech all those years before.
The champion swimmer said that “beautiful moment” had encouraged her to influence the next generation.
“I often think about that… it’s one of the things I’ve always liked to do. I always like to inspire younger athletes because someone did that to me,” Morgan-Beavis said.
The Australian Olympic Committee said only three 13-year-old athletes have ever competed in the green and gold jersey.
Ian Johnston competed in rowing in 1960, while swimmers Tracey Wickham represented Australia in 1976 and Jo-Anne Barnes in 1968.