Other Sports: Olympics-Aussie skateboarding gem pumped for Paris after Tokyo heartbreak

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Three years after COVID-19 dashed Ruby Trew’s Tokyo Olympics dream, the teen skateboarder from Sydney’s Northern Beaches is determined to make up for lost time at the Paris Games.

Trew was part of a team of Australian skaters who were summarily disqualified from a 2021 Olympic qualifying event in the United States after several among the group tested positive for the virus.

Those who tested negative were still ruled out because they were deemed close contacts.

It was a bitter end for Trew’s Tokyo tilt but the setback has helped fuel the 15-year-old for a delayed Games debut in Paris.

“Knowing how close I was to Tokyo and watching the final knowing I could have been there, it was pretty disappointing,” she told Reuters on Thursday, nearly three years to the day since the heartbreak in the U.S.

“So I can’t wait to get to Paris.

“Without having COVID now, it’s completely different. And being able to mix with other skaters is great.”

Trew, who skates goofy-footed, is not yet confirmed on Australia’s Olympic team but her qualification is a formality.

Ranked sixth in the world in park skateboarding, Trew need only drop in at the final event of an Olympic qualifying series in Budapest next month to book her Paris ticket.

She is nonetheless training furiously, spending five hours a day at skating parks in Sydney and more time in the ocean as one of Australia’s top junior surfers.

It’s a regime Trew admits can be tough to maintain on certain days when feeling exhausted.

Trew would normally be juggling practice and competition with homework but has taken a break from high school to focus on the Games.

“For now I’m just travelling around the world and getting ready for (Paris),” she said.

Such is the life of a skating prodigy in a sport renowned for child champions.

Japan’s Momiji Nishiya claimed gold in the women’s street category at Tokyo Games as a 13-year-old.

Trew’s 14-year-old Australian team mate Arisa Trew – no relation – is also in line to skate in Paris, having shot up to world number two in the park category after winning a qualifier in Shanghai last weekend.

The novelty of two teenage Trews on the same team is not lost on Ruby, who says people sometimes confuse them.

“We tell everyone we’re cousins,” she said.

“And actually we hang out a lot together. I love Arisa, she’s great. Maybe if we did genetic testing there might be some relation but I don’t know.”

Along with skateboarding, surfing made its Olympic debut at Tokyo and the Paris Games tournament will be held at Tahiti’s famous break, Teahupo’o.

Trew can imagine becoming an Olympic surfer some day, maybe as soon as the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

At 15, she has her whole life ahead of her.

“For the moment I’m focusing on skating but I’ll see how I go. Whether I want to skate at L.A. or surf, I’ll work it out later.”

(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Stephen Coates)