Heili Sirviö, 13, advanced to the finals of the park competition in skateboarding. Before that, he danced with Australian star Arisa Trew. The preparation also included barbie games.
Paris Olympics on channels 26.7.–11.8. Go to the competition website here. You can find the entire program of the games here.
PARIS. Heili Sirviö, 13, knew how to at least take it easy before his historic Olympic debut. It became clear at the Paris Olympics. Sirviö became the youngest Finn ever to compete in the Olympics when he skated in the women’s park competition.
Sirviö finished fifth in the qualifying round and later on Tuesday made it to the competitive top eight final. The race starts at 18:30 on TV2 and Areena.
Sirviö first prepared for the competition by playing with barbies. He later danced the world famous Austrian skateboarder Arisa Trew’s with.
– The girls are playing with the barbie and we are at a sports event, the Olympics. They still do kid stuff. It’s pretty cool, Fredu’s father, who is also Sirviö’s coach, says.
Fredu Sirviö was really emotional after his daughter’s performance.
– I have to go somewhere just to cry. I am so happy, father summed up his mood.
– This is unbelievable. I am almost speechless. All in all, this has been a historic journey for Finnish sports. A lot of work has been done with Heili. Things have also been done right. This is what happens when you do things right and don’t mess around.
Huge recognition from a world-famous star
Trew, who reached the finals, also rejoiced in the audience at Sirviö’s wonderful performance. Even before the scores were announced, he threw the upper femmes in the stands with Heili Sirviö’s mother Anni.
Arisa Trew and Heili Sirviö are each other’s best friends. Sirviö started skateboarding specifically as Trew’s coach by Trevor Ward in the academy. Ward was Sirviö’s first coach before Sirviö’s family moved to the United States.
This year, however, before the qualifying competition in Budapest, which decided the Olympic place, Ward also helped Sirviö. In addition to Fredu’s father, he is coached by a Finnish skateboarding legend Jussi Korhonen.
Last summer, Trew became a world-famous skateboarder when she became the first woman ever to do a 720 trick, that is, a trick that takes two full turns in the air.
The trick Trew did was called frontside 720 indy, i.e. two laps in the direction of the back with wheels indy-grab. At that time, among other things, a skateboarding legend Tony Hawk beamed the Australian youth.
Now 14-year-old Trew praised Sirviöt profusely when Urheilu asked him about his Finnish colleague. The Finn has not always been the best guy.
– When we were young, we didn’t get along so well. Of course we were friends, but also really competitive with each other. We pushed each other really hard. If he hadn’t been by my side, I wouldn’t be here. I only started to get better when he started putting me down, Trew beamed.