Ruby Trew is only 15, but the skateboarder is one of Australia’s youngest Olympic athletes heading to Paris. Ruby talks grinding, ollies and aerials with Editor in Chief Michelle Giglio
It’s not every day that I interview an Olympian while they are sitting in a petrol station car park, en route to the airport.
But such is the life of Narrabeen’s Ruby Trew, who at just 15 has qualified for the Paris Olympics in park skateboarding.
Currently ranked sixth in the world, Ruby has given up so much in her short life to get to this point: foregoing school, sleepovers with friends and hanging out at Warringah Mall with her ‘besties’. But this is exactly what she wants to do in life, in her quest to make the podium at Paris.
“There’s been lots of challenges,” Ruby reflects. “Not just with skating, but missing out on doing the usual stuff that 15-year-old girls do. But I’ve had a lot of fun on the way. I’ve met so many new people that I probably wouldn’t have if I hadn’t sacrificed my stuff for skateboarding. So I’m really stoked that I can say that I’m going to the Olympics.”
When we speak, Ruby had just one more Olympic qualifier to get through on 23 June in Budapest. She is trying to perfect tricks at The Shed Skate Park in Melbourne, considered to be the best indoor training ground in Australia. She is nearly at the end of years of preparation which has involved a lot of travel for training and international competitions. Just in May, over 10 days, she competed in Beijing at the first Olympic qualifier, returned to Sydney, went to Melbourne for intense sessions, then flew out to the USA for more training. This involves four to five hours of skating a day – not to mention getting in a bit of schoolwork.
“It’s pretty exhausting, skating every day and training,” Ruby admits. “But I like doing it. If you’re doing what you love, then you should be happy. It’s hard sometimes, but I have my dad, my family and my friends to help me get through it, so I love it.”
The hard work has paid off, as Ruby has qualified for Paris, ranking eighth at Budapest.
Father James, an enigmatic Welshman who doubles as her coach, says Ruby rapidly progressed from a scooter at age three to a skateboard at age five. “I could see that she was very balanced and she had great ability to control and manoeuvre that scooter,” he recalls. He had to get himself a skateboard just to keep up with her speed – then Ruby would hop on and go between his legs. It wasn’t long until she got her own. “As soon as I saw her on a skateboard, I could see that she had amazing balance, and that’s why I pursued it.”
Aged 10, Ruby won silver at the World Skate Games 2019 in Barcelona.
At the time, skateboarding was still very much an urban sport for the diehards, made popular in the USA. James was certainly not thinking ‘Olympics’ for his daughter, given the sport was not an event. “I could see that she had a talent and we were going to explore it.”
Just a year after Ruby’s first skateboard outing, she competed in an international competition, aged six, in the USA – and picked up her first sponsor. She remembers the event well, as she managed to perform a ‘slash grind’ for the first time, where the skateboard ‘trucks’ (which connect the wheels) grind the coping of the skate bowl. “It was a pretty great feeling – my first big accomplishment.”
At nine, she became possibly the youngest person in Australia – and third girl in the world – to land a ‘540,’ where the body rotates one-and-a-half times while in the air with the skateboard. At 11, she was competing for a spot at the Tokyo Olympics, where skateboarding was to make its debut, at a qualifying event in the USA. Three of the Aussie contingent were struck down with COVID-19, and even though Ruby had made the semi-finals, the whole team was disqualified, leaving her ‘heartbroken’. All that is behind her now. “That’s why I’m still doing it, because I want to come back and be even stronger.”
Watching videos of Ruby competing around the world, with her long blond hair flowing behind, her movements are fluid and confident, and she makes it look so effortless. But when you look closely at Ruby’s face, it is steely, a picture of concentration, as she races to get up to 15 tricks completed in just 45 seconds. Her legs pump hard to build up the speed to push her skateboard up the ramps and grind across the rails.
The judging can actually be quite subjective, James explains. “The judges will be looking at the difficulty of tricks, but also how competitors link those tricks together and the obstacles they use on the course. They’ll also be looking at the creativity of the overall run as well.” That is a lot to pack into 45 seconds – with only three runs each round.
Ruby’s whole family has travelled with her to Paris to see her compete in the park skateboarding, which starts in the second week of the Games on 6 August.
Ruby is adamant that she is not going to Paris just for the ‘experience’: “I’ve come all this way. And most people who get to the Olympics are just stoked that they got there, but I want to go to the Olympics and potentially medal and put down my best run. That’s the goal for me.”
Despite her tender age, Ruby takes the pressure of elite competition in her stride. “I’m really good at handling my nerves,” she states. “I just think about all the teaching points, my tricks, what’s good technique and knowing that what I’ve done in practice is going to work – and believing that I can do my run and then I’ll land it.”
What if she doesn’t land it? “Usually I practice it in between the runs because there’s a bit of time. I tell myself that I can do it and I’ve practiced it. (It’s important) not to get too nervous because otherwise the pressure gets to you and you just fumble.”
Ruby credits her mother Laura for the calm attitude, saying she is ‘good at handling pressure’. Father James admits he gets much more nervous than Ruby at events – with Laura revealing that at the Beijing qualifier, he called her in Sydney as Ruby had fallen during her first two runs. “James told me he had to take an Aspirin as she was giving him a heart attack!” Laura laughs.
Having the dual role of dad and coach is very challenging, James acknowledges. “It’s probably one of the most toughest things I’ve had to do. And it’s gotten really intense over the last year because of this Olympic journey we’ve been on. You know, I never intended to have a daughter go to the Olympics.”
James has sought assistance from the Australian Institute of Sport and other coaches on how best to balance the dual roles. “We have a rule in the house that after 6pm we don’t talk about surfing, or skateboarding. It’s just downtime for whatever Ruby wants to do, so schoolwork or Snapchatting or YouTube.
James has sacrificed so much to get his daughter on the cusp of Olympic selection
“Ruby seems to be managing it a lot better than I am, to be honest!”
Skateboarding at the women’s elite level is dominated by teenagers, with fellow Australian, 14-year-old Arisa Trew – no relation – currently ranked number two in the world. James explains that the sport has progressed ‘very fast’ in a short space of time. “What was a good trick a few years ago, now everyone’s doing that trick. It’s progressing at a rapid rate, especially with the girls because it’s so new. And the younger girls aren’t scared of trying tricks. I feel like (in) the sport, the older you get, the more cautious you may behave.”
Yet unlike most events, it’s extremely collegiate, with Ruby calling fellow competitors ‘friends,’ and not foes. “Everyone’s really supportive of each other and it’s a great sport to be in,” she says. “Everyone hypes each other up for tricks, not like other sports where it’s secretive and you don’t want people to do certain stuff. I love it.”
That ‘supportive community’ is also how Ruby has gotten to where she is today. James admits that he is not a skateboarder, but has had the best coaches in the sport help him to teach Ruby. “It’s a journey that we’ve gone on together,” he reflects. “I’ve learned the tricks at the same time she’s learned them. We’ve watched the YouTube videos and we’ve had friends help us and pro-skateboarders.”
He may joke that he has just ‘come along for the ride’. But it is his hard work as much as Ruby’s that has gotten the pair to Olympic selection.
Needless to say the whole family has gotten behind her – with mum Laura, twin sisters Gwennie and Millie (14) turning up to tournaments and training. The Northern Beaches community has also rallied behind the teenager, crowd-funding her countless trips and even turning up to watch her train.
“It feels really great knowing that people around me support me so much and believe in me,” Ruby says. “It’s been a really tough journey, but without the support of everyone that’s around me, my community, my school, my friends, I don’t think I would’ve got here without them – especially my family.”
Ruby is also a talented surfer, seen here at URBNSURF in Melbourne. Centre: World Park Skateboarding Championships in Ostia, Italy in October 2023
With such an intense schedule, downtime has been extremely important to avoid burnout, and most days you will find Ruby surfing – her other great love. She is one of few dual athletes listed with two qualifying bodies – Skate Australia and Surfing Australia – and while she loves connecting with the ocean, Ruby says skating has ‘gotten me a long way’ and is what makes her ‘really happy’.
“I just love how everyone, no matter what age or if you’re a girl or a boy, you can try skateboarding. It’s for everyone. You don’t have to live in any special place, you can just buy a skateboard and have a go.”
Just before the Olympics, Ruby took out a bronze at X Games Ventura in California, USA, where she was invited along with other top international skateboarders to compete in a festival-type event, which included moto-cross and BMX bikes. Given she trains most of the time on her own, she was looking forward to seeing her friends and taking advantage of some of the world’s best facilities. “It’s hard missing surfing and school and not having anyone to train with, so it’s hard to be motivated sometimes,” she admits.
Ruby then returned to Sydney to see her mum and sisters – and dog Cabs, named after famous US skateboarder Steve Caballero – before heading to Paris. “I think it’s important to thank everyone who supported me on the journey,” she explains. “Obviously I couldn’t have done it with just my family. I couldn’t be more grateful.”
Ruby encourages everyone to watch the skateboarding which will take place in the second week of the Games from 6 August at the Place de la Concorde in the centre of Paris, with its famous 22-metre Luxor Obelisk. “It’s definitely a cool sport compared to something like lawn bowling!” she laughs. She has never been to Paris, and while she would love to see sites like the Eiffel Tower, she will be ‘staying super focussed and keeping my eyes on the prize’. Ultimately, she is committed to giving back to the sport she loves, and hopes it ignites a fire in others.
“I hope that I can keep progressing and inspire young girls to take up a sport no matter what it is or how old they are. Boys and girls really. It’s just about inspiring the next generation.”
Watch Ruby compete at the Olympics in the women’s park skateboarding prelims on 6 August on Channel 9.