Greg Rodriguez: My hopes of bringing Mexican culture to skateboarding at LA 2028

Greg Rodriguez wasn’t at the Paris 2024 men’s street skateboarding event but, like everyone else watching, he sensed something special happened that day.

“It was super hectic. Super crazy turnout,” the 23-year-old remembers with a smile, recalling Yuto Horigome’s clutch final act. “He just always makes history; he’s one of the best.”

It was ultimately from afar that Los Angeles-born Mexican street skater saw the Games. Just one month before the Olympics, Rodriguez learned that he just missed out on securing a quota for himself.

Though he skipped the first three Olympic World Skate Ranking events, he tenaciously hustled at the remaining others to finish inside the top 44 and book his tickets to the Olympic Qualifier Series stops in Shanghai and Budapest.

It was a remarkable effort from the latecomer but the ranking points gap was ultimately too big to bridge at the final events, relegating the skater to the sidelines for Paris.

Speaking to Olympics.com at the World Skate Games 2024 in Rome, where the Street World Championships are due to get underway, Rodriguez reflected on the shortcoming with a remarkable maturity.

“I was kind of bummed on it honestly, but I feel like it was just another bump in the road,” he says frankly. “It was a learning lesson. And I started late, so I wasn't too hard on myself.

“Honestly, I grew up as a person,” he continues. “Before I was more closed-minded, never taking advice. But now that I have coaches and staff helping me out, it’s a big difference mentally.

“The physical part is, always, as a skateboarder, you always fall and get up, fall and get up. The long run in skateboarding is like a whole different picture. A whole different ball game.

“After that, I had a pep talk with my dad, and he was like, you don't have to worry about it, you started so late and you still got to a certain point. You have to be proud of the little steps. Instead of jumping to the big point of the whole road.”

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Raised by his Mexican grandma: "She always taught me the culture behind it"

It’s with little surprise that Rodriguez’s father played a key role in helping him digest the initial Olympic disappointment. Family is central to the skater and his story up to now.

Though born and raised in the United States, Rodriguez’s family are originally from Mexico. His grandparents and parents made the decision to cross the border with the hopes of giving him a better life.

The choice to compete for Mexico was for Rodriguez an easy one, but also one full of meaning.

“I was raised by my grandma most of my life so she always taught me the culture behind it,” the skater says talking about his Mexican roots. “That’s what I wanted to represent.”

With family from Guadalajara to Tijuana and in between, Rodriguez says he has recently started to regularly visit Mexico. When he’s there he also always makes time to visit skateparks which is where he feels a difference.

As the country’s leading contest skater - reflected in his surge through the World Skate rankings - Rodriguez is often recognised when he's out skating. A fresh tattoo on his left arm, done at the insistence of someone he met while in Mexico, points to his growing influence.

Rather modestly, Rodriguez brushes off any suggestion that he might be hiding something but does admit to feeling a kind of obligation to succeed.

“I kind of take it as a responsibility. I shouldn't, but I do, just because I also skate for Mexico, so they can see somebody, not from there, but someone that is Mexican can also do it. And so they can always put more effort into it and more excited about something.”

Rodriguez on LA 2028: "I'm hoping for it"

Considering how he came up just short of Paris, it’s not at all unexpected that Rodriguez is back in the contest arena at the first available opportunity.

Though the future road to qualification is some way off being defined he’s not taking any chances: “I’m going to start the process early“, he says with a smile.

There’s also a sense that the Mexican will embark on the next four-year cycle as a changed skater. The road to Paris may have served him up a bit of a heartbreak but the Mexican also believes it has helped him progress.

“I really liked how they had it formatted. It helped me become a better skater. Just from the repetition of tricks. Because that happened to me in Budapest, I asked about scoring. I asked why because I was confused on it and they were like the repetition of tricks. I was like, 'ah,' so it made me go back home and learn a whole different bag of tricks. So, now I'm a lot better of a skater than I was from that.”

Those learnings Rodriguez hopes will bring him to his next goal: LA 2028.

It’s a dream some way off in the distance but one he is committed to, not least because it’s the perfect place for his two halves to collide.

Speaking about the future Games, Rodriguez shares an infectious passion

“Honestly, I feel like I'm really excited for it just because there's a whole Mexican culture there that I'm really excited to bring to the Olympics. So I'm hoping for it,” he says looking ahead.

“I have family that live in Mexico but it's not too far from the border. It'll be great to have everybody there.”

When asked to sum up the energy that he hopes Mexicans might bring should he make it, Rodriguez paused for thought: “That's a good question,” he considers.

“They're super enthusiastic about everything and just everything they do, they do with, power,” he says with a smile, “it’s a whole different vibe”.