WST Park Rome 2023 World Championships: The young skaters ready to rip
Discover more about the next generation of skateboarders with the potential to cause a stir when the action gets underway at the Paris 2024 Olympic Qualifier in Rome, streaming live on Olympics.com.
Skateboarding
Young guns coming along and tearing up the status quo is a familiar script in the world of skateboarding.
Consider Japan’s Hiraki Cocona who, at 12 years old became the youngest person ever to win an Olympic medal in 85 years when she snagged silver in the women’s park event at Tokyo 2020, in 2021, just in front of Sky Brown, aged 13.
Could it be the fearlessness of youth or even the forgiving body that makes young upstarts such a threat on the skate contest scene?
Whatever it is, with tickets to Paris 2024 still up for grabs, it’s a talking point ahead of the WST Park Rome 2023 Word Championships.
With teenagers all across the world ready to drop in and impress, here is your guide to a select few who have the opportunity to continue their respective breakthroughs in Italy.
Arisa Trew, 13 - Australia
13-year-old Australian Arisa Trew’s rise in the past year has been nothing short of astronomical.
Following a relatively quiet showing at the World Championships in February, the teen has progressed at an alarming rate.
In late June she became the first female skateboarder to land a 720 in a competition, earning praise from skaters worldwide.
She followed that headline-making story by re-writing more history at X Games California, becoming the first female to win double gold by winning both the vert and park contests in Ventura.
If she can convert her recent form onto the Olympic qualifying stage Trew will be one to follow all the way until Paris.
Hasegawa Mizuho, 12 - Japan
The depth of skateboarding talent in Japan has become one of the biggest talking points around Olympic qualification for Paris 2024.
Where other countries jostle for room, Japan’s skaters take up space aplenty evidenced by their four Olympic medals at Tokyo 2020.
Half of that haul came from women’s park with Yosozumi Sakura and Hiraki claiming the bounty, but the two skaters, still dominant post-Japan’s Games, are not now without company.
Enter Hasegawa Mizuho.
Making her debut at X Games Chiba at just 12 years old, the young skater from Ibaraki impressed enough with her sixth-place finish to get the invite to Ventura in the summer.
There, the unknown entity to so many impressed the judges to finish in second place becoming part of an elite few who have won an X Games medal before the age of 13.
Gavin Bottger, 16 - USA
One skater already familiar with making podiums is US teen phenom Gavin Bottger.
Born and raised in South Lake Tahoe, the Bottger family later relocated to Southern California to support their son’s burgeoning skate career and eight years on from his first start, he is now part of USA Skateboarding’s team for 2023.
The Olympic qualifying experience has been a mixed one so far for the 2022 Dew Tour men’s park winner. His promising run at the World Championship in Sharjah was cut short following a broken wrist which sidelined him from competing.
But within months the young talent was back and ripping, collecting a fifth place during the second Olympic qualifying stop in San Juan and later collecting bronze at X Games Chiba in Japan.
Ruby Trew, 14 - Australia
Ruby Trew, also from Australia but not related to Arisa, is another small but mighty pick from Down Under to keep an eye out for.
A sensation in both surfing and skateboarding, Trew had her dreams of making it to Tokyo 2020, in 2021, dashed by the coronavirus meaning she comes bidding for Paris 2024 with a certain fire in her step.
And that fire is now into results.
After finishing 10th in Sharjah, Trew levelled up at the next stop in San Juan, finishing the competition in second place behind Sky Brown. Her consistency has earned her a spot among the pre-seeded skaters in Rome and it’s got everyone wondering what she might do next.