Latest news with #VictoryCeremony
The Star
02-07-2025
- Sport
- The Star
Skateboarding-Olympic champion Trew, 15, surges into X Games record books
Paris 2024 Olympics - Skateboarding - Women's Park Victory Ceremony - La Concorde 4, Paris, France - August 06, 2024. Gold medallist Arisa Trew of Australia celebrates on the podium. REUTERS/Mike Blake (Reuters) -Teenage Olympic champion skateboarder Arisa Trew has made history by winning more gold medals in the X Games summer disciplines than any other woman and told Reuters she has no intention of slowing down. The 15-year-old Australian beamed a wide smile as she was mobbed by her fellow competitors at the top of the ramp after winning the vert best trick competition in thrilling fashion for her eighth X Games gold medal on Saturday. "I was really happy when I landed my kickflip body varial 540 in the best trick competition because that was my first one since my knee injury at the start of the year," she said in an interview this week. "And it was really fun because they all ran up and were super stoked and congratulating me." The memorable moment recalled her performance at the Paris Games last summer, where she became Australia's youngest Olympic champion by reaching the top of the park skateboarding podium. Trew credits her skateboarding journey to her early introduction to skateparks at around age seven by her father. She noted that sharing the sport with friends boosted her skills and passion, saying, "I feel like I only started to get good when more girls started skating because it gave me people to skate with, to push off of, and to just have fun with." Trew's ambition grew when she landed her first 540 - a trick where a skater completes 1-1/2 rotations while airborne. "There weren't many girls doing 540s, and I thought that was really cool," she said. This achievement fueled her desire to compete and master new tricks, with the goal of skating alongside other elite female competitors at events like the X Games and the Olympics. "I wanted to be there skating with them," she said. Looking ahead, Trew, who grew up on the Gold Coast in Queensland and spends time training in the U.S., is set to defend her Olympic title at the Los Angeles Games in 2028 at age 18 and plans to compete again in Brisbane four years later. Despite her future plans, she remains focused on each event, with Tony Hawk's Vert Alert in Salt Lake City later this month the next on her schedule. "I just like try to get better every time because there are definitely a lot of improvements I need to make at each competition," she said. (Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Ken Ferris)
The Star
08-06-2025
- Sport
- The Star
Swimming-Chalmers hopes Enhanced Games leads to improvement in prize money for clean swimmers
FILE PHOTO: Paris 2024 Olympics - Swimming - Men's 100m Freestyle Victory Ceremony - Paris La Defense Arena, Nanterre, France - July 31, 2024. Silver medallist Kyle Chalmers of Australia celebrates on the podium. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File photo (Reuters) -Kyle Chalmers won't criticise fellow swimmers for taking part in the Enhanced Games, but the Australian hopes the proposed multi-sport event prompts World Aquatics to increase prize money for clean athletes. The Enhanced Games will allow athletes to use pharmacological or technological assistance, including substances banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Retired Australian world champion swimmer James Magnussen, 34, in February last year agreed to take performance-enhancing drugs to make an attempt at beating Cesar Cielo's 15-year-old 50-metre freestyle world record. The Enhanced Games concept has been met with widespread criticism, with World Aquatics introducing a new bylaw that will prevent any athlete or official who supports or endorses doping from competing or holding any positions after a Greek swimmer supported by the Enhanced Games 'broke' the world record. "James is one of my really great mates so I'm definitely not going to knock him for going across there," Chalmers was quoted as saying by the Australian Associated Press on Sunday. "That is something that is hard in our sport, there's not a huge amount of money or prize money on offer and we kind of do it for the love of it. "So I am not going to be a person that slams swimmers for wanting to go across and make some money and give themselves a better opportunity in life or set their families up..." The Enhanced Games will hold their inaugural competition in Las Vegas in May next year with swimming, athletics and weightlifting on the agenda. Participants could earn prize money totalling up to $500,000 per event plus bonuses for surpassing a world record mark. "Swimmers have been underpaid for a very long time at the big competitions," the 26-year-old said. "I'm very lucky to have a lot of personal sponsors so I do OK for myself, which is nice. But I know that there's a lot of swimmers out there that really struggle... "So I really hope that there is a shift, that we are able to get a little bit more prize money for what we do, but I guess we'll see." (Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Bengaluru; Editing by Michael Perry)
