Teen skateboarder Chloe Covell eyes Paris Olympic Games

The 13-year-old daughter of a former NRL cult hero* is flipping her way towards potential Australian Olympic history as one of the world’s hottest young skateboarders.

Just six years after stepping foot on her first board, Chloe Covell has emerged as one of Australia’s best skateboarding talents on a worldwide qualification journey that could lead her to the Paris 2024 Games.

It was watching fellow Aussie Keegan Palmer take gold in the sport’s debut in Tokyo that truly solidified* the dream for Chloe, who will become one of Australia’s youngest-ever Olympians if she makes the plane to Paris.

“I remember being picked up early from school and I came home to watch (the Tokyo Games) with my Nan and my Dad,” she said.

“Seeing the tricks they were doing and how they progressed was so exciting.”

Chloe is the daughter of former Cronulla goalkicking winger Luke Covell, a 153-game veteran who once joked he was too slow for the NRL.

Despite her famous father’s footy past, rugby league was never on Chloe’s radar. If anything her sporting dreams were of soccer, until a sliding doors moment* at the age of six.

“I was just outside playing one day and the X Games was on TV. I saw (American skateboarder) Nyjah Huston who was skating at the time, he was in the middle of his run and I don’t know, it just clicked in me. As soon as I saw him skating that’s what I wanted to do,” she explained.

Now Chloe is on the fast-track to success, following a breakout 2022 that included a X Games bronze medal and Street League Skateboarding (SLS) silver on debut.

While her Palm Beach Currumbin High School peers were completing their schoolwork at home, Chloe played catch-up between flights to Brazil, Italy, Japan and the US.

She has rapidly built a cult following online, boasting more than 46,000 Instagram followers and signing to a range of sponsors, including Nike.

The comments section of her social media videos predict the Tweed Heads teen will be the next big thing in female skateboarding – incredible given she herself still gets starstruck* when attending competitions.

“My idol is Rayssa Leal from Brazil. She’s 15 now, she’s a sick skater,” Chloe said of the Tokyo silver medallist.

“When I met her for the first time at X Games Japan she asked to play a (video) game of SKATE with me and I was like … ‘OK’. It was sick, so sick.”

GLOSSARY

• cult hero: someone who is loved by a particular group
• solidified: made firm, solid
• sliding doors moment: small moments or decisions we make that end up having a big impact on our life
• starstruck: greatly impressed by people you admire, especially famous people

EXTRA READING

Girls surfing new wave of sports

Female skaters ramp up Olympic ambitions

Skateboarder lands record-equalling gold

QUICK QUIZ

1. How old was Chloe Covell when she first stepped on a skateboard?
2. In which football code was Chloe’s father a cult hero?
3. Which Aussie skateboarder’s gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics solidified Chloe’s dream?
4. Name one of the events Chloe won a medal in last year.
5. Which video game did Brazilian skater Rayssa Leal ask Chloe to play?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Dream career
In the article Chloe remembers being only six years old when she decided she wanted to be a professional skateboarder. She’s been working hard to achieve her dream ever since. Now aged just 13, she’s travelling the world and well on her way to becoming an Olympic skateboarder.

What is a goal you’d like to achieve (it doesn’t need to be sport related) and what are some steps you can take to work towards it?

• Goal:
• How can you work at achieving this goal:
• Where would you like to be in five years from now towards this goal?
• How will this goal make you happy?

Time: allow 25 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and social, Critical and creative thinking

2. Extension
Do you think Chloe’s chosen career of skateboarding will lead to financial success and happiness?

Explain some of the highs and lows she might face in this career at such a young age.

Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and social, Critical and creative thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
Talent Search
Watching Chloe carve up the pavement on the skateboard is truly amazing. She is very talented, and skateboarding is not a skill in my repertoire so I appreciate her ability even more as I know I couldn’t do anything like it.

But that doesn’t mean I’m not talented. In fact, few people know that I am actually very good at art, in particular air brushing portraits. It’s just not really something I talk about, as it’s uncommon so it doesn’t come up in conversation. Do you have a skill or talent that few people know about? What is it? When did you discover you had this talent?

It can be as little or as big as you like, it doesn’t matter.

Share your talent with someone that wouldn’t know this about you and listen to their talent.

Getting to know something new about someone is a lot of fun. What else could you learn about the person you spoke to?