The 13-year-old daughter of a former NRL cult hero* is one of the hottest young skateboarders in the world and may go down in Australian Olympic history.
Chloe Covell has established herself as one of Australia’s top skateboarding talents on a global qualification quest that might take her to the Paris 2024 Games just six years after picking up her first skateboard.
Chloe’s desire was confirmed for her by witnessing fellow Australian Keegan Palmer win gold in the sport’s inaugural competition in Tokyo. If she makes it to Paris, Chloe will be one of Australia’s youngest Olympians in history.
She recalled being picked up from school early and returning home to watch (the Tokyo Games) with her father and grandmother.
It was thrilling to watch the tricks they were performing and their development.
Luke Covell, a former goal-kicking winger for Cronulla who played in 153 games and jokingly quipped that he was too slow for the NRL, is the father of Chloe.
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.
