It didn’t matter to 51-year-old Andy Macdonald that he was among the lower-ranked finishers in the men’s park skateboarding competition at the Paris Olympics.
He still considers himself a winner.
“People are like: ‘Are you going for the gold?’ And I’m like: ‘If they’re giving away gold medals for whoever has the most fun, I got it wrapped up,’” Macdonald said Wednesday. “I definitely won the gold medal for most fun.”
Macdonald made history as the oldest skateboarder to compete in the Olympics. Born and raised in the U.S., he turned pro in 1994, is a nine-time world champion and an X Games veteran now representing Britain — where his father was born.
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Macdonald and 49-year-old South African Dallas Oberholzer are the older guys in a men’s Olympic competition where the youngest entrant is 16-year-old Viktor Solmunde of Denmark.
Macdonald finished 18th of 22 starters with a respectable 77.66. Oberholzer, a mostly gray-bearded traveler whose skateboarding odyssey has left him broke, was last with a best score of 33.83.
The two-time Olympian, who also placed last in Tokyo, was still proud of his day. It was his personal best score, and his mother was there to watch him skate for the first time in 28 years.
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“My mom’s accepted that I’m an Olympian and a skateboarder at the same time,” he said. “So that’s my greatest accomplishment.”
Oberholzer got a nice ovation from the crowd when he completed what he calls his “one big trick” Wednesday in the prelims.
Macdonald was a fan favorite and the crowd, including legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk, went wild when he finished his second run with a backflip to exit the bowl.
“I did that for the crowd and it was just about getting to experience and represent for skateboarding,” Macdonald said. “I was trying to represent like, ‘hey, this is fun no matter what age you are.’ This is like the coolest, funnest, most inclusive thing that you can do.”
Hawk, who is 56, loved seeing guys closer to his age bracket in the Olympics.
“I was really proud of Andy just because I skate with him all the time and he’s representing our generation, so is Dallas in a sense,” Hawk said. “But Andy was always one of the No. 1 vert skaters in the 90s and 2000s and he brings his skillset. He’s never lost a step. And for him to come here and do his whole routine, to me, that was the viral moment.”
Macdonald has sponsors including Vans, Patagonia and Triple Eight. Oberholzer is nowhere near that level. He rented out his Cape Town flat to pay for all the trips to competitions in far-flung places so he could qualify for the Olympics. He hopes to visit his girlfriend in Dubai after the Games, but with no sponsors he can’t pay for the visa.
So, was it all worth it?
“I really put everything out there, even financially as I wasn’t really supported,” he said. “But I really just put everything into it and I made it, and now I made my personal best and I got to share it with my family. So, it was definitely worth it.”
He would appreciate it more if his appearance in the Olympics helped increase interest and support for the sport in Africa.
“What would be more worth it is if I got home and people called me up and said: ‘We want to build a skate park.’ And so we could maybe make skateboarding less of a luxury and more of a basic kind of thing. I would love it to be more accessible to the masses in Africa.”
Puerto Rico’s Steven Pineiro, a 27-year-old who finished 14th Wednesday, said it was “beautiful” to see the older guys competing.
“I better take care of myself so I can do that,” he said.
Australia’s Keegan Palmer, who successfully defended his Olympic title Wednesday, joked about Macdonald’s age after silver medalist Tom Schaar paused momentarily before responding to questions about competing at Los Angeles in 2028.
“Come on,” Palmer, who is 21, said to 24-year-old Schaar. “Andy Mac’s still in there at 50, we’ve got a few more years.”
Oberholzer and Macdonald, who is a father of three, insist that competing against people decades younger than them doesn’t make them feel older.
“Skateboarding is my fountain of youth,” Macdonald said. “I’ve been doing it since I was 12 years old and I’m 51 and still enjoying every minute of it.”
And neither rider is ruling out trying to qualify for Los Angeles in 2028.
“The journey was even better than the destination this time,” Oberholzer said. “I just love skateboarding and I won’t stop.”
