Tom Schaar grabs final USA Skateboarding Park place for Paris to end Jagger Eaton's dream of a double

BUDAPEST - Jagger Eaton’s hopes of double gold at Paris 2024 were dashed at the hands of his teammate Tom Schaar in the Men’s Skateboarding Park competition at the Olympic Qualifier Series (OQS) in Budapest on Sunday.

With a second-place result behind Australia’s Keegan Palmer, Schaar (pictured) did just enough to snatch the USA’s final Olympic quota spot, bumping Eaton down to fourth in the national rankings.

While he will still compete in skateboarding street in Paris, Eaton was unable to put down a clean run in any of his three park semifinal attempts on Sunday and failed to make it through to the final.

Schaar - who lost his shot at an Olympic berth for Tokyo 2020 in the final competition of that qualification period - required a first or second-place finish in Budapest to finally get his chance at Olympic glory, and the 24-year-old delivered.

With a powerful second run that included a stalefish 360, a backside 540 and an alley-oop kickflip Indy to lead things off, Schaar earned a score of 94.46 to briefly take the lead.

Palmer dropped after Schaar for his second run and one-upped his friend immediately, with his one-two opening combo of alley-oop frontside air into an alley-oop frontside kickflip lien grab setting the tone for a run that would go on to earn him a score of 94.94 and tentative favourite status when he defends his Tokyo 2020 gold medal at the Paris Games.

The OQS Budapest men’s park top three was rounded out by Schaar’s US teammate Tate Carew with a score of 92.65, and the three close friends shared a celebratory moment when it became clear that not only would they share the podium in Budapest, they also had the shared experience of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games to look forward to.

“It doesn’t get much better,” Palmer said. “It’s like a script was written and it all played out. All three of us were just back and forth through prelims, semis and finals. Me and Tom battling on the first run, and then on the second run today, it was an absolute experience.”

Schaar said: “We’ve all been doing this for so long. There’s no crazy rivalries or anything weird like that. We’re all just having fun. I’m standing up on that podium with my best friends. It’s so sick.”

Australia's Trew the skater to beat after dominant Women's Park victory

Earlier in the day, 14-year-old Arisa Trew set Australia on their way to a skateboard park one-two with another dominant performance in the women’s event to make it back-to-back OQS wins, sending her into Paris as the heavy gold-medal favourite.

Trew was locked in on her second run, landing a backside 540 body varial on the highest vert wall and backside 360 over the centre box while putting together some of the longest grinds of the competition to score 93.38.

“It was really cool to win both this event and OQS Shanghai,” Trew said. “I wasn’t expecting to win this one. I wasn’t even trying to win, I just wanted to make sure I made finals, because I was already in a pretty good spot to qualify for Paris. But I was just so amazed to win. It’s really exciting and I’m just going to keep pushing myself and hopefully get into the finals at the Olympics as well.”

Second place went to Great Britain’s Sky Brown, who made a successful return to competition following a year away due to a serious knee injury. Earning a 91.93 to jump into a podium position, the 15-year-old showed she is capable of improving on the bronze medal she claimed at the Tokyo 2020 Games.

The podium was rounded out by another 15-year-old, Hiraki Kokona’s score of 91.83 ensuring the Japanese skater heads into Paris ranked No.1 in women’s park.

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