The next time Fay DeFazio Ebert hops on her skateboard, two of the Toronto teenager’s biggest fans will be cheering her on from Fenwick.
DeFazio Ebert’s grandparents – Harry and Marilyn – live in the village and will be glued to their TV screens at 6:20 a.m. on Aug. 6, when she gets her first taste of Olympic competition, representing Canada in the preliminary round of the woman’s skateboarding park event. The competition will be streamed live via CBC Gem. Harry and Marilyn have installed the app on their smart TV just to watch their granddaughter compete.
“I’m not generally a morning person, but I will be that day,” Marilyn said with a laugh.
She knows her granddaughter is looking forward to the experience.
“These kids have been competing with each other for the past couple of years,” Marilyn said. “They’re friends, they have a great rapport.”
DeFazio Ebert, who left for Paris yesterday, is excited to be an Olympian, her grandmother said.
“She already feels like a winner just for qualifying.”
In addition to DeFazio Ebert, Canada Skateboard and the Canadian Olympic Committee selected Miles Berger of Kamloops, B.C., Ryan Decenzo of Delta, B.C., and Cordano Russell of London, Ont., to round out the four-member team.
The four athletes qualified based on their performances across World Skate events over the past two years, as well as the Olympic Qualifier Series which ended last weekend in Budapest, Hungary.
In a news release announcing her selection to the team, DeFazio Ebert said having the number of skateboarders headed to Paris as Canada does “makes a big impact” on the sport despite some obstacles facing athletes.
“We lack high-level skateboarding training facilities in the country,” she said in the release. “Yet, to see us as a team, as individuals, push through and skateboard our best on this international scene is amazing.”
In Paris, Canada will be represented by a total of 338 athletes at the Games.
And while it’s DeFazio Ebert’s first Olympics, won’t be competing without the benefit of international experience. She already has a gold medal she won at the 2023 PanAm Games in Santiago, Chile, in her back pocket. And as she always does, she will be sporting a feather from her pet duck in her helmet and will also bring along her trusty ukulele.
“She does take that all the time,” Marilyn said of the musical instrument. “I think it helps her relax.”
Fay’s father is Harry and Marilyn’s son, Andrew.
At just 14-years-old, DeFazio Ebert is the youngest Canadian Olympian since swimmer Barbara Hounsell in competed in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. She is no stranger to competitive skateboarding, however. She made her debut when she was only nine years old – just one year after first hopping on a skateboard – when she took part in the Montreal stop of the Vans Park Series, in July 2019.
She is currently ranked 23rd in the world in park. At the Olympics, she’ll be competing in a field that includes world No. 1 Kokona Hiraki of Japan and No. 2 Arisa Trew of Australia. Other notables include Americans Bryce Wettstein, Ruby Lilley and Minna Stess, who are ranked 8th, 11th, and 13th respectively.
With files from The Canadian Press
