Chloe Covell and Arisa Trew, two 13-year-old athletes from the Gold Coast, have made history at this year’s X Games, held this month at Ventura County Fairgrounds in California.
The pair competed in the women’s division but in separate competitions. While Trew took out the women’s vert title, Covell claimed the gold medal in the women’s street competition, becoming the youngest gold medalist in the games’ 29-year history.
Covell beat 15-year-old Japanese athlete and Olympic gold medalist Moniji Nishiya, as well as 30-year-old Leticia Bufoni from Brazil in the event. She is now the youngest person to have had two podium finishes in the competition’s history, after finishing with a silver medal in last year’s X Games.
Covell has sat at the top of the sport for the past two years and is expected to be a hot contender in the Paris Olympics next year.
Meanwhile, Trew managed to land the first 720 by a woman in an X Games competition in her performance that won her the gold medal. She has successfully completed the move in a past competition in Utah.
“I’m beyond happy to have placed 1st in X Games today!! And to be the youngest to win 2 gold medals,” Trew wrote in an Instagram post.
Canadian skater Reese Nelson came in second place to Trew, becoming the youngest medalist in X Games’ history. She is just 10 years old.
“Stoked to be the youngest X Games medalist,” Nelson wrote in an Instagram post.
“So lucky to have my skate friends, mentors and sponsors!”
The average age of the podium in the women’s skateboard vert event was 13 years 6 months.
The women’s skateboard park and vert were made official X Games competitions in 2003, while skateboarding only made its first appearance as an Olympic sport at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Both men and women’s skateboarding events at the 2024 Paris Olympic games include Street and Park, set to take place on July 27-28.