2000 - present

Poppy Olsen grew up on Bondi Beach, deep in the skating and surfing culture. Poppy was eight years old when she got her first skateboard which was gifted to her by a family friend. Poppy reflects “I asked if I could have a turn and ended up stealing it the whole walk home". She was only eight years old when she fell in love with skakeboarding and was often the sole girl at the Bondi skate park. From the start, she was determined to achieve two things; to become one of the best skaters in the world and to encourage and inspire more girls to skate.

Apart from hard work and injuries, the biggest hurdle for Poppy has been financing trips to compete internationally. In 2011, Poppy started her own company www.poppystarr.com and began selling her artworks, gift cards and jewellery designs in order to fund trips to World Cup events.

Since then, Poppy has been invited to speak at various business conventions including Google ‘Women in Business’ and The Unconvention for Young Entrepreneurs and TED Talk. She has become a leading role model for Women’s skateboarding. Poppy has also completed several commissions from Waverley Council including painting signal boxes and a mural at Bondi Skate Park. Poppy worked hard as an advocate for skateboarding to become an Olympic sport and itinially happened in 2016. She has also campaigned the Australian Sports Commission for Skateboarding to have its own National Governing Organisation. She established a business selling gift cards and jewellery designs in order to fund trips to World Cup events.

Poppy became the number one female bowl skater in Australia at age 14 and at 17 went on to take out bronze at the X Games - the ultimate competition in the world of skateboarding. The same year, skateboarding was announced as a new sport category at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. In 2018 Poppy was awarded a Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship and was mentored by seven-time world surf champiion Layne Beachley. She also earned a scholarship to the NSW Institute of Sport which afforded her access to world class training facilities. In August 2021 Poppy participated in the delayed Tokyo Olympics and placed fifth in the inaugural Olympic women’s park skateboarding event.

Courtesy Poppy Olsen.