By: Lauren Wu
On July 23, 14-year-old Chloe Covell, decided to participate in the Paris Olympics in spite of her fractured fingers. She chose to do this because she wanted to be the youngest Australian ever to win gold in the Olympics.
Chloe is 14 year 5 months old young lady from Tweed Heads in New South Wales. She started skating at six years old after seeing American star Nyjah Huston, arguably the world’s best street skater, competing at X Games. If she won gold in the Olympics, then she would replace 1956 Olympian swimmer Sandra Morgan, who won at 14 years and 6 months, as Australia’s youngest Olympic gold medallist in history.
On July 9, in LA, Chloe slipped and fractured her fingers. “It was just a freak incident, I just slipped out and they (the ring and little finger) fully bent back,” she said. Although she has broken her pinky and ring finger, this teenage skating sensation won’t let that stop her from pursuing her goal to be the youngest Australian to achieve first place at an Olympic game when she competes in Paris.
Chlor looked relaxed as she skated out of the Main Press Centre and headed up for the Arc de Triomphe, which honors those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. She said she was getting mildly nervous. “I’m definitely a little nervous because it is the biggest stage. The biggest competition and there are just famous people walking around everywhere,” Chloe said.
The skaters from Australia tried out the Urban Park for the first time on July 22 as other skaters from the USA, Japan, and France, just to name a few, started training in other skate parks. The Australian skaters will each get four two-hour sessions on the course in the coming days to rehearse their Olympic runs and figure out which tricks will get them the most points.
Sources:
https://www.kidsnews.com.au/sport/teen-skater-chloe-covell-to-go-for-gold-at-paris-games-despite-injury/news-story/17c2a84e98c022c62871cc514804b597
https://www.kidsnews.com.au/sport/teen-skater-chloe-covell-to-go-for-gold-at-paris-games-despite-injury/news-story/17c2a84e98c022c62871cc514804b597