Keegan Palmer on adjusting to his champion status: “I still get nervous, I’m no superhero”

It’s been a steep learning curve for Keegan Palmer since striking gold in the men’s skateboarding park event at Tokyo 2020.

A year and a half ago, on the baking concrete of Tokyo’s Ariake Urban Sports Park, the 19-year-old from Australia executed a near-flawless campaign in his pursuit for the first ever men's park gold. Leading the way from his very first run he then underlined his supremacy with even greater run score on his third and final attempt.

It is with great fondness that Palmer now looks back on his first Games.

From getting to show the world the strength of the bond among skaters to stepping up onto the final podium alongside his two best friends Pedro Barros and Cory Juneau instrumental in the making of his own career, skateboarding’s debut, and his role within it, was something special:

“We were all just so happy to be there and all together,” Palmer told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview. “I was able to put down my best run possible – I don’t even know if I could do that run again. Everything on those two days... the stars were aligned. It was magical.”

The dream state Palmer entered after being crowned Olympic champion continued after the Closing Ceremony. His new status meant an increase in media attention, there were invitations to design park bowls and in the 2022 Australia Day Honours, the skateboarder was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in recognition of his Olympic achievement:

“My photo was on the Sydney Opera House and my mind was blown. I was like, wow, this really happened? This is really happening. Like, I don't know how to describe it. I'm speechless still.”

Keegan Palmer: Adjusting to competition after the Olympics

After enjoying all the highs of being an Olympic champion Palmer says it wasn’t until his first competition after the Games that the reality of his new position within the park skating world began to take hold.

Lining up for Summer X Games last year, the Australian said that it was then that the pressure of being an Olympic champion affected his ability to skate:

“X Games was my first competition after the Olympics. I got the shakes before my run, fully stressed out: [it was a] terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible time.

“We had a week to practise for the contest. I was killing it, landing everything. All my runs, every try. Doing new tricks people never seen before, a bunch of crazy stuff, landing it too. Day the contest hits it’s just out the back. Nothing's working. I'm shaking before my run.

“It was because I've never been in the hot seat. What I mean by that is like I've never had all eyes on me. ‘Keegan is going to win, he is going to do this, he's going to do that.’ You know? I've never had that in my entire life, so I was definitely feeling the pressure on that one for sure.”

Palmer ultimately finished the contest just off the podium in fourth place. It wasn’t what he hoped the return of the Olympic gold medallist to competition would look like. But while it was a rough return the experience, he says, was still valuable. He now understood the weight of expectation.

A week after X Games Palmer and the field hit up Dew Tour for another contest and the Tokyo gold medallist immediately made adjustments based on his experience in California.

The first thing the skater did was rinse himself of the pressure he had been applying imagining what those on the outside were thinking of him - and he found it working:

“We had another contest, which was a Dew Tour contest. I got third. But that one, I was having fun again. I was enjoying myself. And my skating showed that. I skated well instead of sitting there like, I've got to win this contest: everyone's watching me. I better not fall.

“It was a good learning experience because I was like ‘Okay, I know what that feels like now. I know what I need to do next time,” the Australian reflected. “So, I still get nervous. I’m no superhero. I'm definitely not a superhero.”

Keegan Palmer: "I can't count myself out"

Palmer’s dissatisfaction with third and fourth place results speaks to the force of the competitive spirit that drives the skater’s desire to succeed.

It also reveals itself when he talks about his style.

Known for the ease with which he combines his wicked speed with aerial tricks like a pinball whizzing around a machine, Palmer responds with a smile at the idea that his skating must not be as easy as it looks:

“I could probably put in a lot more work. I’m not an A-plus student: I’m a lazy kid for sure,” he says before switching tack. “But I can’t count myself out because most of my work where those tricks come from was those 15 years that I lived in Australia. It’s like we used to say: any trick, and wall.”

Born in the United States before emigrating to Australia, Palmer’s start in skating came after his father discovered his ability to balance while out surfing on a foam board at a young age: “When I could stand, I wouldn’t fall over, I wouldn’t wobble out,” the skaterboarder explained. “So, they were like, let’s get him a skateboard and see if he likes skateboarding.”

The experiment worked. From rolling around on the grass, to then upgrading to the driveway Palmer’s connection to his board was as strong as it was instant, meaning it wasn’t long before he was hitting up the infamous Elanora skate park on Australia’s Gold Coast. And it was there, with its full pipe and large transitions, that Palmer found the next level.

“Having that bowl like that and that size was a big help in my life,” Palmer says.

“I literally started skating that park in the bottom of the bowl, literally in the bottom. That bowl was big to point where the smallest section was like six feet. So, I couldn’t even drop in yet. I'd literally start in the bottom of that bowl, skating around the bottom. Then we had skateparks around us that had five-foot, three-foot, two-foot walls so I could work my way up to that bigger wall and then I could drop in.”

According to the gold medallist, cutting his teeth on one of the country’s biggest and meanest bowls is why he was able to progress at the speed with which he did so and when faced with the giant bowl at the Tokyo Games, he was able to thrive:

“That’s why my skating really took off, is when I was able to drop in Elanora.

“If you look at the Olympic Park and look at the stuff I do and then look at that skate park you'll see, not a resemblance, but you'll notice that's the stuff I skate, and I've been skating that stuff since like five years old to now.

“Just being able to do my tricks on different stuff has helped me to be able to skate; to go to Tokyo have a park that has 100 different things in it and be able to do my 100 different tricks on the 100 different things.”

With the Olympic gold around his neck Palmer has helped forge Elanora’s reputation as a destination for those that want to follow in his footsteps. But it isn’t the only way the Australian has secured its legacy.

Today, the iconic skate park bowl is floodlit at night allowing skaters to practise even when the light fades. It is a privilege those that skate it get to enjoy thanks to the efforts of Palmer and his father who petitioned local authorities for the change back when he was using the bowl.

“We had no parks to skate at night-time in the Gold Coast. None, zero, zilch,” the Australian remembers. “So, we were just knocking on their door constantly, ‘Hey we need lights, we need lights’. We talked to the mayors. We talked to everybody in that place. And then they finally did it.

“Shout out to my dad because he put all the effort into that one.”

Keegan Palmer: In action at the 2023 Park World Championships

Like the three other first-ever Olympic skateboard champions Palmer will now begin trying to do what no one has yet done in his sport: become a back-to-back gold medallist.

For the Australian there is little doubt when he talks about the scope of his future Olympic ambitions. Imagining the years ahead his excitement grows, looking even as far as Brisbane 2032 for what would be a home Games:

“I want three medals and then I’ll be happy. I want Paris, Los Angeles and Brisbane,” the skateboarder says confidently.

“But Brisbane - that one’s going to be pushing it: I’ll be late thirties for that. You know what that one could be? That one could be a three-peat and then Keegan’s comeback out of nowhere - ‘Keegan out of nowhere! He comes back! He’s 35!’”

Before Palmer can begin conceiving of the Games in-wait, he must first tackle Paris 2024 which will begin for him at the Skateboarding Park World Championships in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

As well as crowning a new world champion, the event at the Aljada Skate Park will also hand out the first set of Olympic ranking points based on the final results from the competition. It will mean that Palmer will need to  bring his best, including all the learnings he has already made since Tokyo 2020.