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PARIS — They ranged in age from a chipper 13 to an ancient 23, the finalists in the women’s park skateboarding event, and before the competition began, they danced with the enthusiasm of youth. But once they dropped into the bowl, the smiles ended. When it was all done, 14-year-old Arisa Trew of Australia captured gold, with Japan’s Cocono Hiraki winning silver and Great Britain’s Sky Brown taking bronze. Team USA’s Bryce Wettstein finished sixth of the eighth finalists.
The heat wasn’t quite as scorching as the early days of the Olympics, but the sun beat down from a nearly cloudless sky and kept competitors and coaches tucked up under the umbrellas beside the bowl. The audience, which included skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, lathered up sunscreen and hydrated as much as possible in the late-summer sunshine.
The format for the final grants each rider three 45-second runs to pull off as many tricks as possible in the vast Parc Urbain bowl in Paris’ famed Place de la Concorde. Olympic planners granted women’s park a prime slot — 5:30 p.m. in the afternoon — and the riders responded.
Brazil’s Dora Varella put the first stake in the ground, debuting with an 85.06 in her first heat. The next five riders came off their boards in the course of their routines, and Varella’s mark would stand for six riders, right up until Wettstein threw down a magnificent 88.12 in the penultimate run of the first round. Hiraki came over the top with a spectacular run of her own to end the first round and claim the lead with a score of 91.99.
Varella couldn’t stick a heel flip at the very end of her second run and remained in the bronze medal slot. Trew started what would end up being a gold-medal performance with a complete run that impressed the judges enough to earn a 90.11, enough to move into the silver medal slot. On her second run, Brown reminded everyone in the arena — and especially the judges — why she’s a defending Olympic medalist, with a clean, powerful run that netted a 91.60, the new silver medal position.
Bumped from the gold medal slot all the way off the podium, Wettstein dropped into the bowl but almost immediately slipped off her board to remain in fourth. Hiraki couldn’t improve on her opening round, but she didn’t need to; after two rounds, she remained in first.
To start the third and final round, Varella fell just short of the podium, with an 89.14. Spain’s Naia Laso couldn’t reach the podium either, earning an 86.28.
Then Trew, already sitting in third place, laid down a spectacular run that brought the loudest cheer of the afternoon, and rightfully so — she earned a 93.18, enough to leap into the gold-medal slot. Brown, looking to move up from her bronze medal slot, unleashed a frenetic, whirling run that earned a 92.31 and moved her up a slot into the silver medal position.
Wettstein wasn’t able to improve on her first-run score, and ended up in sixth. Hiraki’s final round came in at a 92.63, just good enough to get past Brown for silver.
