Downhill daredevil: Female jockey Deanne swaps silk for skateboard

Aussie jockey Deanne Panya has just been selected to represent her country – so why is it all downhill from here?

Well, Panya is set swap racing silks for racing leathers when she heads to Paraguay* for the World Skate Games in October to compete in the “Downhill”, where she will reach speeds of up to 100 km per hour.

As a jockey, Panya has ridden over 150 winners and counting, at Royal Randwick, Rosehill, Canterbury and Warwick Farm as well as her memorable Magic Millions Cup win on the Gold Coast while still an apprentice*, so she is no stranger to putting on the pace.

In October, the diminutive* daredevil will throw herself headlong at the fast, furious and unforgiving Downhill World Cup against the best on the planet in this most extreme of sports.

“I am going be up against the top world champions,’’ Panya told The Daily Telegraph. “And they’ve been world champions for years so it is going to be a challenge.

“I think I’d be happy to place in the top 10 but I’d be really happy with top five.”

Panya, now 30, has come a long way since she and her twin sister, jockey Beany Panya, would “cruise around” on their store-bought four-wheelers not far from Warwick Farm in Sydney’s southwest, where they both ride trackwork each morning.

“I was about 15, I think it was, and I saw a video of one of the old world champs who was going down a hill in America on a longboard and I thought ‘I want to do that one day’,’’ Panya said.

Which she did, on and off — 13 years off, in fact, while focusing on her career in the saddle after getting her jockey apprenticeship*.

Panya will continue to ride right up until October but is spending every other day crouched on her specially designed skateboard, riding up and down — mostly down — every sloping street she can find.

“I have got strengths and weaknesses I’ve got to work on,’’ she said.

“I know I’ve got a pretty good aerodynamic* tuck. It is the technical corners I need to perfect: the race-line*, drifting into corners – that is what I have been working on.

“I know I can go fast; I am trying to focus on how to control that speed.”

Panya is currently bound for Canada, where she will compete in the legendary Attack of Danger Bay skateboarding meet in Vancouver with her cheer squad in tow: four-year-old daughter Ruby and her partner, horse trainer Steve Englebrecht. This year marks the 25th (and final) year of the world’s oldest downhill longboard competition.

POLL

GLOSSARY

• Paraguay: a central South American country between Argentina and Brazil
• apprentice: someone who works for a skilled person for a period of time and often for low payment, in order to learn that person’s skills
• diminutive: something or someone small in size
• aerodynamic: something or someone having a smooth, even shape that offers the least possible resistance to air currents or movement
• race-line: a sequence of multiple tricks performed in succession without stopping, falling or pushing excessively between them

EXTRA READING

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How Chloe Covell keeps her cool

‘How I skateboard without my legs’

QUICK QUIZ

1. How many wins has Panya had as a jockey so far?
2. Approximately how old was she when she saw her first longboard skateboarding video?
3. How long did she pause her longboard ambitions while building a career as a jockey?
4. What is the name of the world’s oldest downhill longboard competition?
5. Approximately how fast will Panya hope to skate in the Downhill event at the World Skate Games in October?

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CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Sporting excellence
Being a racing jockey and downhill skateboarder in the World Skate games seems like two very different careers, but Deanne Panya is managing both at elite levels.

What skills might she have from racing that could transfer to downhill skateboarding?

Complete a Venn diagram below comparing skills specific to race jockey, skateboarding and the skills that could possibly overlap.

Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Health and Physical Education, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

2. Extension
What do you think might motivate Deanne Panya to compete in not just one, but two internationally competitive and highly dangerous sports?

List three possible reasons below:

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Time: allow 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Health and Physical Education, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
Girls in sport
There are many sports in which we’re seeing more female participants. What sports have you noticed, or maybe joined yourself, where you have seen an increase in the number of girls now playing? How do you feel about this? Why do you feel this way? Do you think it’s a positive shift? Why/why not?

Use your VCOP to express how you feel towards girls taking up more sporting roles. Explain why you feel this way. Use your emotive language to express your point of view.