Teen skater Chloe Covell to go for gold at Paris Games despite injury

Two broken fingers won’t stop young skateboarder Chloe Covell from going for gold at the Paris Olympics.

The 14-year old fractured* two fingers on her right hand when she accidentally fell during a training session in Los Angeles two weeks ago.

But the star skater said she wouldn’t let the injury stand in the way of her quest to become Australia’s youngest ever Olympic Games gold medallist when she competes in Paris.

“With street skating you don’t grab your board, so it’s pretty chill,” Covell said.

“Yeah, about two weeks ago I fractured both of my fingers when I was training in LA.

“It was just a freak incident, I just slipped out and they (the ring and little finger) fully bent back.

“Big injuries for me are, like, my wrists. I have little bones and I guess my wrists, the bones chip very easily, and my ankles, they always get chipped quite a bit and I’ve had a couple of stitches and stuff.”

Covell has proved an Olympian to watch at this year’s Paris Games. At 14 years and five months, she could replace 1956 Olympian swimmer Sandra Morgan* as Australia’s youngest Olympic gold medallist in history.

While Covell stayed calm as she skated her way out of the Main Press Centre and up towards the Arc de Triomphe*, where she posed for photos with young fans, she said she was starting to get a few butterflies in her tummy.

“I’m definitely a little nervous because it is the biggest stage. The biggest competition and there are just famous people walking around everywhere,” she said.

The Australian skaters got to try out the Urban Park* for the first time on Monday.

The skaters will each get four two-hour sessions on the course in the coming days to rehearse their Olympic runs* and figure out what tricks and lines* they will take to score the most points.

“You definitely need to figure out (your run) when I see the course, see the size and check it out,” she said.

“You can’t just stick with one run. I like to kind of move around because if you need a bigger run you have to add stuff in or take stuff out.”

POLL

GLOSSARY

• fractured: a broken or cracked bone
• Sandra Morgan: an Australian Olympic swimmer who won gold while competing in the 100m freestyle relay at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics when she was just 14, making her the youngest Australian to have won gold at any Olympic Games
• Arc de Triomphe: a famous monumental arch in Paris that honours those who fought and died for France in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
• Urban Park: a new Olympic venue in Paris where skating, 3x3 basketball, freestyle BMX and breakdancing will be held
• run: a skater’s turn at using the skate park to pull tricks and impress the judges in a competition
• lines: a number of tricks performed one after the one

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QUICK QUIZ
1. How old is Chloe Covell?
2. Which two fingers did she injure?
3. How did she injure her fingers?
4. Who is Australia’s youngest Olympic Gold Medallist?
5. How is Covell preparing for the Olympics?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Youngest Olympian
At just 14 years and 5 months, Chloe Covell is the youngest competitor in the Australian team and has a strong chance to win a medal in the sport of skateboarding.

Being so young, what tips would you give Chloe to stay calm and focused in the upcoming Olympic skateboarding competition?
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What extra measures would the Australian Olympic committee need to put in place for athletes under the age of 18 to ensure they are safe and well looked after at the Paris Olympic Games and in the athletes village?
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Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Health and Physical Education, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

2. Extension
Read Chloe’s biography on the Paris Olympics website (https://olympics.com/en/athletes/chloe-covell)

Watch the highlight video and name some of the skating moves she performs in the Olympic qualifying rounds.
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Are you able to perform any of these on a skateboard?

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

VCOP ACTIVITY
Imaginative dialogue
Imagine you were there during the event being discussed in the article, or for the interview.

Create a conversation between two characters from the article – you may need or want to include yourself as one of the characters. Don’t forget to try to use facts and details from the article to help make your dialogue as realistic as possible.

Go through your writing and highlight any punctuation you have used in green. Make sure you carefully check the punctuation used for the dialogue and ensure you have opened and closed the speaking in the correct places.