"20-Hour Flight with Friends"... Australian Gold Medal Girl's Reason for Refusing Business Class Seat

Return Flight Business Class Denied
"I Wanted to Come Home with My Friends"

In the women's park skateboarding event at the 2024 Paris Olympics, 14-year-old girl Arisa True, who won the gold medal, reportedly declined a business class seat for her return flight. During the approximately 20-hour journey home, she chose 'friends' over a comfortable seat.

On the 15th (local time), True explained in an interview with an Australian local radio station, "I could have sat in business class, but I wanted to come with my friends Chloe and Ruby." Earlier, the Australian government had offered True a business class seat for her return flight, but she reportedly declined it herself.

Australian skateboard representative Arisa True smiles holding a gold medal after winning the women's park final at the skateboard event held on the 6th (local time) at Place de la Concorde in Paris, France.
[Image source=AFP Yonhap News]

It is reported that there are no direct flights from Paris, France to Sydney, Australia. Because of this, True has to endure a long flight of about 20 hours. However, True chose friendship with her friends over a comfortable journey home. Chloe and Ruby, whom she mentioned, also participated in this Olympics with True but unfortunately did not win any medals.

True added, "I want to go back to school quickly," and said, "Meeting friends and teachers at school and skateboarding again is the most enjoyable thing in the world."

True became the youngest Australian gold medalist in Olympic history at this Olympics. Interest in True in Australia is said to be at the level of a 'national little sister.' The DJ who conducted the interview with True also praised her, saying, "How can someone be this lovely?"

Skateboarding, which was adopted as an official event at the last Tokyo Olympics, is a sport dominated by teenage athletes.
[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

Before True, the youngest Australian gold medalist was Sandra Morgan, who won first place in swimming at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Morgan was 14 years and 6 months old at the time, while True, born in 2010, won the gold medal at 14 years and 3 months old in this competition.

Meanwhile, on the 6th, True scored 93.18 points in the women's park skateboarding final held at Place de la Concorde in Paris, securing first place. Skateboarding was adopted as an official Olympic event for the first time at the 2022 Tokyo Olympics and has since been called 'the domain of teenagers.' True, the gold medalist, is a teenager, and the silver and bronze medals were also won by teenagers: Japan's Hiraki Kokona and Britain's Sky Brown, respectively.