Andy Macdonald: Skateboarding "on its way to taking over as the main sport for the Summer Games"

It doesn’t take Andy Macdonald long to find the words.

“It was the experience of a lifetime,” the celebrated vert skateboarder says with a smile, summing up the Olympic Games Paris 2024 to Olympics.com.

“[It was] just a phenomenal experience overall and just feeling so lucky that I got to be a part of it. It was definitely a long shot from the get-go and just feeling like, why me? How did all the stars align for me to even qualify and get there? And then to go in and skate well like I did and have the reception that I got?

“It was beyond my wildest dreams.”

Macdonald’s Olympic jaunt certainly was one of the more remarkable at the Games in France. At 51 years old, how the British-American simply made it was one of the more unique storylines.

Revelling in the frustrations of adapting his vert style to the park bowl, against age, odds and expectation, the skateboarder rode out the twists and turns of the qualification road to clinch one of the coveted 22 competition spots.

That he then effortlessly stole the show in the men’s park preliminaries was, for the skater, the cherry on the icing on a cake he never once thought he would ever taste.

His final score, 77.66, saw him finish 18 out of 22, but ultimately it didn’t matter. Macdonald had done what was once thought impossible and he had done it on his own terms.

“By the time competition day came, I was just having such a great time and enjoying my skating and enjoying that whole process of being in the athlete village and that I honestly could have fallen every run and I would've been just as happy just to have taken part in it,” the skater continued.

“I took my first run and I got all the way to the end, but I fell on the last dismount trick. I didn't really care because I was just happy to get to the end but I was shocked. I knew the British contingent would have my back and they'd be cheering for me. But the whole crowd got behind me and it was really neat. I was humbled by that for sure and it lifted me up to want to do the next round which was more difficult.

“I got through the whole thing and made the backflip. And then the crowd went nuts again. And I was just like, now I'm really having fun and the crowd’s behind me. And I made my third run with a fakie 540 on the last trick of my run, which I've done like twice in four or 5 five days of practice,” he continues still smiling.

“I definitely think the crowd had something to do with that.”

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How Tony Hawk made Macdonald feel "just at home"

Of the thousands urging Macdonald at the Place de la Concorde, there was one in particular the broadcast cameras kept panning back to.

Standing overlooking the park was Tony Hawk, legendary skateboarder and best friend to Macdonald. Each time the Briton finished a run, Hawk was on his feet applauding the skater's efforts.

**“**I feel like he got to kind of live vicariously through me,” Macdonald says of Hawk’s support.

Not only was he there on competition day Hawk also made a surprise appearance at the practice park while Macdonald was filming with a broadcaster making the Games even more surreal experience for the quinquagenarian.

“They gave us the street course for an afternoon after one of the practice sessions. So Tony showed up early in the practice session and barged in,” Macdonald remembers. “He followed me around with his camera for a little bit, a couple of runs and made it feel more like just at home, you know? It’s the Olympics, like everyone's stressing now, trying to get their runs together and stuff and I'm just like, “I’m here, Yay!”

Skateboarding "on its way to taking over as the main sport for the Summer Games"

It’s clear that, on a personal level, the Games have left an inedible mark on Macdonald, who would be the first to admit that they were far from a ‘lifelong dream’.

But having trodden the path to qualifying and experienced all the aspects of the Olympics from the village to the competition arena, the skater is even more confident of skateboarding’s place in the Olympic pantheon.

“I feel like [skateboarding is] doing for the summer Games what snowboarding did for the Winter Games,” Macdonald says reflecting on the sport’s inclusion.

“It took a couple of cycles for people to catch on but now people tune in to the Winter Games to watch snowboard halfpipe; figure skating is like not a thing it used to be. And I think the same thing's starting to happen with skateboarding. If you were at the finals park skateboarding event at Paris, that was the thing to be at. There were 5000 people, a packed house, Macron, the French president was there, Snoop Dogg was there, Tony Hawk was there. That was like the event and it was just electric.

He continues: “The street event, you couldn't have scripted it better. How it came down the wire for everybody. I think it's on its way to taking over as the main sport for the Summer Games.

"There are no rules in skateboarding"

Macdonald in his participation will have surely shaped the future of skateboarding in the Games, too.

Much was made of his age ahead of the contest but perhaps not emphasised enough was how impressive an athletic feat his appearance was.

“We're still learning how long we can do it for,” Macdonald says candidly, happily leaning into his status as a role model to young and old.

“This sport is everything I have in my life. It is joy to people that know it. And if I can bring that to a few other kids, I've done my job. And now being on the biggest stage, you know, in sport, the Olympics, it was really neat to not only be able to represent skateboarding, represent my country but to represent skateboarding as a whole and my generation for what it's meant to me. And that's just the fun and pure joy of skateboarding.

"When I talk to people that watched my runs at the games, they say, ‘You look like you're having the time of your life’. And I'm like, good. I'm glad that that came across because I was. And that's was my opportunity on the world's biggest stage to show the world that skateboarding at any age is just pure fun. It's just pure enjoyment, self-indulgent, just a good time.

“So not only do I feel like I can inspire new kids to pick up skateboards, but because I’m like the old guy at the Games, I can inspire all guys 50 plus, you know? I can inspire adults not to put their skateboards down. Just the feedback on social and all that, is like you inspired me to pick up a skateboard again after 20 years.

“We're still learning: there are no rules in skateboarding.”

Andy Macdonald on LA28: "If the British national team wants a washed-up vert skater..."

Though the Games are now in the rearview mirror Macdonald is far from letting up on his skateboarding.

In competing for Team GB via his British father, he has come to better the health of the British skate scene and there is, he says, a lot of work to do.

**“**When I came over to the British Nationals in 2020, my assessment of the scene and the perception, certainly the facilities of skateboarding in the UK was that it was like 15 or 20 years behind where it is the United States.

“I was doing interviews and stuff and it was like, ‘Are you a little old to be skateboarding? You know, like is skateboarding dangerous? Is that extreme? Like really? Is this 1995? How are we not past that yet? Then we're talking about skateboarding in the Olympics now but through the Tokyo cycle and certainly now through the Paris cycle, I've seen the scene in the UK ticking up: facilities-wise, perception-wise. Sky Brown has been a big part of that. Two medals for England contributing to Team GB medal count and people know who Sky is and they know she's a skateboarder, and they want to know what's up with skateboarding. Where are we getting people into it?

“We just got to get people on boards,” he continues. “And then beyond that, they're talking about building a national training facility. An indoor skate park is desperately needed here; more cement, indoor skate parks for athletes to train on. And, hopefully, that will evolve and morph into more throughout the country.”

As for any future Olympic involvement, the question of LA28 brings a coy smile to Macdonald’s face. It’s one he has been asked several times.

**“**I hadn't even walked off the course in Paris. And they were like, What do you think, Andy? LA28? You'll be this old,” he says grinning.

The conditions for another Olympic attempt for Macdonald mostly hinge on whether vert skateboarding is included in the Olympic program.

Vert ramps have been home to Macdonald throughout his skateboarding career earning him his 23 X Games medals.

“Park skating is, I think, one of the best parts of the Olympic programming but add vert skating and now you really have a show. That's the most spectacular-looking discipline in the sport, and they're missing out on not having it all. Going into LA, the birthplace of skateboarding, you can have Tony Hawk involved, we can skate his ramp if you want. It's such a miss if they don't. So fingers crossed they do. And who knows if the British national team wants a washed-up vert skater to be part of the team, maybe I'll be riding some vert.

“Who knows?”