Australia’s youngest gold medallist awarded Junior Athlete of the Year
Published Sun 01 Dec 2024
After an incredible year that saw her become a household name, Paris 2024 gold medallist Arisa Trew OLY was named Junior Athlete of the Year at the recent Queensland Sport Awards.
At just 14 years of age, Trew is taking her sport to new heights and seemingly pushing the laws of gravity into new territory.
Among the very best skate athletes on the planet, Arisa burst onto the scene in her sport and into the public eye when she was the first female athlete to land a 720 manoeuvre in competition.
She has since taken this even further by nailing a 900—or two and a half rotations mid-air—on her road to the Skate Park Final in Paris via gold in both the Vert and Park events at the X Games in California.
The youngest member of the Australian Olympic team in Paris became Australia’s youngest ever gold medallist as she rebounded from a stumble on her first run in Olympic competition to charge to the top of the leaderboard and the Olympic podium.
“It means a lot to me to win this award; it was super cool to be a contender alongside so many amazing athletes, and I was just so stoked to hear my name and go up on the stage,” said Trew.
“This year has been crazy for me; there've been so many highlights.
“The Olympics were such a cool experience for me. I didn’t know what to expect, but it was so good to be there and skate with my best friends.
“The park was actually made up of a whole bunch of obstacles from all the events we qualified at, which was really cool.
“Getting the gold medal was really the cherry on top; it was very exciting,” she said.
Honoured earlier this year with the Laureus World Sports Award for ‘Action Sportsperson of the Year’, Trew is incredibly deserving of the Junior Athlete of the Year award for 2024.
“Hopefully I’ll be back at the Queensland Sport Awards next year; that would be really cool,” said Trew.
“I’m just going to keep skating and having fun. I’ll definitely be pushing myself to learn more tricks and take my skating to the next level.
