Skateboarding’s Keet Oldenbevuing welcomes OQS challenge: “Everything can still happen”

Olympic Qualifier Series

In an exclusive interview with Olympics.com, the Dutch Olympian talks Olympic Qualifier Series, tattoos and parents, and the importance of respecting freedom in skateboarding. 

6 minBy Chloe Merrell
Keet Oldenbeuving at WST Street Rome 2023 

(Jake Darwen/World Skate)

“Everyone is going to have to really do their best,” Keet Oldenbeuving says frankly as the dazzling desert sun lighting up the sky behind her begins to sink into its slumber.

The 19-year-old Dutch skater is speaking to Olympics.com from World Skate’s qualifier stop in Dubai she begins by sharing her thoughts about the upcoming Olympic Qualifier Series (OQS) in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China from 16-19 May.

The contest is one half of a two-part series that marks a shift into the next qualification stage for skaters looking to secure a quota for Paris 2024*. There, they will continue to earn points towards the world ranking before a final cut to the field is made to determine who will compete at the Games.

But unlike the previous qualifying round, the points on offer will be worth much more than before, adding an extra edge to proceedings.

“The next phase is going to be stressful for everybody and no one's safe. Which, you know, might make it a little more exciting. Everything can still happen,” Oldenbeuving explains. “It is definitely a little scary. You don't really know what's going to happen, but, I mean, I guess you can't really do more than try your best. So that's all we all got to do.”

*As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.

Click here to see the official qualification system for each sport.

"It was crazy when I got the call"

If Oldenbeuving does make it out of the other side of Shanghai and Budapest - host of the second part of OQS and third phase of qualifying - she stands to be part of the first group to make back-to-back Olympic street skateboarding contests.

The Dutch teen was one of a select few who debuted at Tokyo 2020 along with her sport; it was a moment that captured the world's attention.

The occasion, and the grind it took to get there, still means a lot to Oldenbeuving who has the Olympic rings permanently inked on her left tricep. Her face lights up the most when she talks about being a flag bearer for the Opening Ceremony.

“It was crazy when I got the call, you know?” she says still in disbelief as she remembers the moment.

“Just walking in the Opening Ceremony itself is already insane and I was like trying to wave the flag and not have it fold over. And it was pretty hard!”

A 16-year-old Keet Oldenbeuving carries the Dutch flag at the Opening Ceremony of Tokyo 2020 with Churandy Martina

(2021 Getty Images)

"It's so freeing"

It is no surprise that the biggest fans of Oldenebeuving’s Olympic tattoo are her parents, whom the skater insists “were stoked” when she decided to commit to the ink.

It was, after all, her father who first inspired her to step onto a board.

“I started skating when I was seven. My dad always had boards around the house because he used to skate. So it was easy for me to grab one and start it. My friends started skating and I was like, well, I might try that. And I liked it a lot. But his boards were like old and rusty so I saved up for my own,“ Oldenbeuving recalls.

The skate lessons she then started led to end-of-season competitions which later developed into national contests. And not before too long, Oldenbeuving was travelling to compete.

The freedom afforded to her in skating kept her committed until eventually it was all that mattered.

“It’s so freeing,” Oldenbeuving says, “You can do it whenever you want, with whoever you want, where you want. It's not like you have a set time, so you have to go somewhere or set things that you really have to do every day. It's really just like a little bit of an outlet.

“I think when I was a kid, it was to get out of school. And I was annoyed at school, and I didn't really like school that much; I didn't really have many friends and to just go out to the skate park I really saw that and I had my friends there.”

Keet Oldenbeuving keeps it fun at World Skate' WST Street Lausanne 2023 stop

(Jake Darwen/World Skate)

"We go through all these things together"

Freedom and friendship remain as important for Oldenbeuving now as they were when she started her skating journey.

To keep her love for skateboarding fresh, the Dutch skater does her best to balance street skating, filming and contests. If that means flying out earlier to an event to find the time to explore, Oldenbeuving admits that’s what she’ll do.

As for friendships: that part she says easy. With connection at the heart of skateboarding culture, Oldenbeuving’s ‘rivals’ are also some of her best friends.

“We go through all these things together with all the other skaters and it's kind of an intense process,” she explains. “And we travel the world with each other and we see each other almost more than our parents.”

Recently Oldenbeuving welcomed top street skater Chloe Covell and Olympic silver medallist Rayssa Leal to the Netherlands. The trio went exploring as well as skating.

“To have Chloe and Rayssa back home was super cool. And to show them where I'm from and the skate parks that I skate. I've been to Brazil too, to skate with Rayssa at her house, and it was so cool as well. You always see the people in the same settings and you kind of get to know them in a different setting, which is really nice.

She continues: “I think it's a very beautiful thing about skateboarding: that we're all getting together and we're all cheering for each other, and everybody has a different style and different tricks. Everybody can really, really be happy for each other. And I think that's really cool.”

As the conversation takes its final shift towards Paris it’s clear that Oldenbeuving hopes to be there.

But in the same breath such is her love of skating and what it brings her, a second Olympic tilt wouldn’t define her relationship with her sport.

“Going to Paris would be really cool; I’m definitely trying to get there," she begins.

"I think with skateboarding, though, there’s not just one thing that we can do. And if we don't make it to Paris, there are so many other things that we can still achieve in skateboarding itself.

“So it's not, you know, the one thing out there, which is nice but," she concludes, "obviously, it would be super cool.”

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