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PARIS — The finalists in the women’s park skateboarding event ranged in age from 13 to 23, and before the competition began, they danced with the enthusiasm of youth. But once they hit the water, the smiles ended. When it was all over, 14-year-old Arisa Trew of Australia took gold, while Japan’s Cocono Hiraki won silver and Britain’s Sky Brown took bronze. Bryce Wettstein of the U.S. team finished sixth in the round of 16.
The heat was not as stifling as in the early days of the Olympics, but the sun beat down from a nearly cloudless sky, forcing competitors and coaches to take shelter under umbrellas by the bowl. The crowd, which included skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, slathered on sunscreen and hydrated as much as possible under the late summer sun.
The format of the final gives each rider three 45-second laps to perform as many tricks as possible around the sprawling urban park of Paris’s famed Place de la Concorde. Olympic planners gave the women’s park a prime time slot (5:30 p.m.) and the riders responded.
Brazilian Dora Varella was the first to score, debuting with an 85.06 in her first run. The next five riders fell off their boards during their routines and Varella’s mark would stand for six until Wettstein posted a magnificent 88.12 in the penultimate run of the first round. Hiraki won with a spectacular run to close out the first run and take the lead with a score of 91.99.
Varella was unable to land a heel flip at the end of her second run and remained in bronze medal position. Trew began what would end up being a gold medal performance with a full run that impressed the judges enough to earn a 90.11, good enough to move her into the silver medal position. On her second run, Brown reminded everyone in the arena — and especially the judges — why she is a defending Olympic medalist, with a clean, powerful run that earned her a 91.60, the new silver medal position.
Wettstein, who missed out on the gold medal and was left off the podium, fell into the water but almost immediately slid off his board and remained in fourth place. Hiraki was unable to improve on his first round, but he didn’t need to; after two rounds, he remained in first place.
At the start of the third and final round, Varella was just short of a podium finish with a score of 89.14. Spaniard Naia Laso also failed to make it to the podium with a score of 86.28.
Trew, already in third place, then produced a spectacular run that drew the loudest cheer of the afternoon, and rightly so: he clocked a time of 93.18, good enough to move up to the gold medal spot. Brown, looking to move up from his bronze medal spot, produced a blistering, blistering run that earned him a time of 92.31 and moved him up one place to the silver medal.
Wettstein was unable to improve on his first-run score and finished sixth. Hiraki’s final run was 92.63, good enough to edge out Brown and take silver.
