Australia Takes Double Gold in Paris for Men’s and Women’s Skateboard Park As Palmer and Trew Take Gold Medals

Olympic skateboarding coverage concluded today as the men and women took to the air and transitions of the Olympic park at Paris's Place de Concorde. 

Skateboard park, which made its Olympic debut in Toyko in 2021, features a course similar to your skatepark bowl with ramps, hips vert walls, and dynamic transitions, and skaters are judged on flow, best use of the course, and difficulty of tricks in a 45-second run. Skaters are given three runs and judged on their best score. Tuesday's women's park competition proved that the kids are alright as a trio of teens stood atop the podium, led by Australia's 14-year-old Arisa Trew with her first Olympic gold medal, 15 year Cocona Hiraki with silver and the southern California based, skating for Great Britain, Sky Brown defended her Tokyo Bronze. Sky's power, speed, and pure style set her up for a podium position. In 2021, Brown became Great Britain’s youngest-ever Olympic medal winner, at the age of 13 years and 28 days. Despite the setbacks of a serious knee injury and a torn shoulder as of late, Sky Brown is now a two-time Olympic bronze medalist. 

Arisa Trew's run through the park course set the top score with a 93.18 as a display of technical, smooth-flowing skating set her aside from the field. Japan's Cocna Hiraki, the reigning world number one ranked park skater rounded out the podium with a silver medal and displayed a style that commentator and skateboarder Ryan Sheckler called reminiscent of Christian Hosoi.

This morning's men's skateboard park competition was one not to be missed. Viewers around the world, Tony Hawk, Snoop Dog, and the crowd in Paris's Place de Concorde were treated to some of the most remarkable high-flying transition skateboarding ever seen in competition as Australia's 21-year-old Keegan Palmer defended his gold medal, American Tom Schaar took silver, and Brazil's Augusta Akio rounded out the podium with a bronze medal. Palmer's winning run came in at 93.11, narrowly edging out his close friend Tom Schaar's run of 92.23. Schaar had one more run attempt as he upped the difficulty in his tricks and flew around the park course, but had to bail on his final trick attempt and couldn't better his score. 

It was not an easy day to judge skateboarding, as Brazil's Pedro Barros (fourth place), U.S.A.'s Tate Carew and Alex Sorgente all put down runs that could've challenged the podium, but it was a big day for skateboarding as the world got to see how far the sport as come. The future is in great hands and congrats to all the skaters!
 

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stash member Toby Koekkoek

Jackson transplant via the Boston area. A traveler, and a skiing, skateboarding, and racquet sports enthusiast