A PlayStation and skateboarding are showing Richard Tury the way to Paris 2024
The 30-year-old Slovakian is nearing a destination known as the Olympic Games on a journey that began with a gift from his grandfather more than two decades ago.
Skateboarding
From video games to the Olympic Games.
That is the fairytale life of street skateboarder Richard Tury, who is on the cusp of Paris 2024 as he rocks up to the first leg of the Olympic Qualifier Series (OQS) in Shanghai from 16-19 May.
It would be Tury’s first Olympic appearance.
“I saw skateboarding when I was six years old, like in beginning of 2000,” Tury told Olympics.com ahead of the two-pronged showdown also being held in Budapest in June. “And I started skateboarding because of my grandpa, he bought us a PlayStation and he bought us Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2.
“I saw it, and it was like really amazing. I was saying I want to do this. I said to my mum, I want to be a professional skateboarder. And they bought me a skateboard and we start skateboarding with my friends around my home.
“Crazy times, it's a lot of memories.”
Age before beauty: Richard Tury is closing in on his first Olympic appearance in Paris.
Richard Tury: 'Age is just a number'
Tury is set to have even more to remember from this summer. Going into OQS, he is eighth overall in the qualifying race and first from his country Slovakia.
The top 20 plus one skater each from hosts France and a country in the top 50 from an under-represented region (universality place) will secure a quota at the Games.
Tury - who hails from Slovakia’s second-biggest city Kosice - watched skateboarding make its debut at Tokyo 2020 from afar, failing to qualify as Japan’s own Horigome Yuto won the inaugural men’s title.
Tury suffered a badly broken elbow in 2018 that led to two surgeries, the second of which was performed two years ago. He maintains the elbow is OK now.
Tury says missing out on the Games three years ago - and everything that’s followed - has helped him navigate the qualifiers for Paris.
“It was good experience,” he said. “Before the last competition, I was like one spot outside of the cut, and that was the World championship in Rome 2021. The semifinal I missed…and I finished like three places out of the cut for Tokyo. But it was a good experience, I think.
“It helped me because I was more motivated to keep it continuing because I knew I can do it, but I had to work on a couple of stuff. But not making the cut for Tokyo is helping me, in general.”
Tury is 30 years old. In a young man and woman’s game dominated by teenage skaters, he is considered grand old by present standards.
Tury said the 'youthification' of the sport is one of the significant changes spurred on by skateboarding’s inclusion into the Olympic programme. It’s looking like the kids will be all right at the current rate - but so will Tury, who's got plenty of quality rides left in him.
“When skateboarding started (at the Olympic Games) in Tokyo 2020, I said I would like to be like part of it but I didn't make it. But this time it's a big deal for me. I would like to compete at the Paris 2024.
“I think age is just a number and I don't think about it. I'm trying to as much as I can continue that way and try my best.”