56-Year-Old Tony Hawk Previews

Elder-skatesman Tony Hawk is in Paris masking Olympic skateboarding and he bought a possibility to take a cruise by way of the skateboard park venue earlier than occasions kicks off on Tuesday August sixth. Competing within the Olympics wasn’t an possibility for the Birdman when he was in his prime (skateboarding made its Olympic debut on the 2020 Summer season Olympics in Tokyo) however he doesn’t have any regrets not having the ability to symbolize USA:

“When folks ask me if I’ve regrets that skateboarding wasn’t within the Olympics after I was youthful, the reply is an emphatic no. As a result of now I exist in a uncommon area that enables me to do the best aspect quests past something I might ever imagined.“

Laborious to consider Tony is 56-years-old and nonetheless in a position to skate like this. Unbelievable.

Tony Hawk could also be rooting for Group USA however his longtime pal Andy Macdonald is in France to compete for Nice Britain. Defying all odds, Andy certified to symbolize England at age 51:

I’ve been mates with this man for the final 30 years and he is among the most proficient, hardcore skaters you’ll ever meet. And he set his sights on an audacious, outlandish aim in 2016: to qualify for the Olympic video games as he approached the age of fifty.

I watched him from afar modify (compromise) his vertical ability set to the smaller transitions & partitions of park occasions, struggling to get sufficient top for flip tips and correct spins. However he persevered together with his deep bag of tips and made it work, flying to each occasion, quietly accumulating factors in hopes of creating the essential cutoff for Paris.

All of it got here right down to the final runs of the ultimate qualifier in Budapest and the celebrities aligned. A few of it was luck, however principally it was due to his resolute willpower, arduous work, well-rounded expertise, and a devotion to skating in contrast to another. Andy Macdonald is 51 and may now add “Olympian” to his storied listing of accolades. Not that any of us anticipated – and even wished – to be right here in our early life. However we couldn’t ask for a greater consultant of our outcast technology on the world stage.

Allons-y Andy!

-Tony Hawk