By: Kerry Ding

50-year-old Andy Mather is going to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics despite being the oldest competitor there.

The top skateboarders are usually very young because skateboarding requires excellent flexibility and resilience to break falls. The winners of this sport are usually a little older than 20. Many are barely even teenagers. Despite challenges like not being as flexible or resilient as before, Andy Mather pushes forward as an experienced skateboarder.

“I’ll see them take a fall and think, ‘Man if I fell like that, I’d be out for two weeks.’ And they’ll just bounce right up and be, ‘Let’s try that again’,” Mather said to the New York Times in an interview.

Andy Mather, born in America, is representing the British team because of his British father. He has gotten just high enough a score in this year’s Olympic Qualifier Series to qualify for the British team. By the time he competes, he will be 51.

Andy Mather has one thing that many of the competitors today don’t have: experience. He has been skateboarding for decades.

“Oftentimes I’ll be skating with my teenager teammates, and they’ll be trying a trick, and chances are I was either there when that trick was invented or know the guy who invented it and how it got its name. Or I invented that trick myself,” said Mather to the New York Times.

When asked about what injuries he had gotten over the years of skateboarding, Andy Mather said:

“Most of the injuries come from repetition, years and years of overuse: There’s not much cartilage left in my knees, the tendons in my wrists; I’ve had an ankle surgery and two knee surgeries. But other than that, I’ve been pretty lucky. The longest I’ve been out is two months.”

To Andy Mather, there is still a chance of him getting into the Los Angeles Olympics in four years. “If they were to add vert skating [skateboarding on a high ramp] for L.A. — I would hope they have the sense to do that. If they do, maybe I’ll be there riding for Team 55 and Up,” said Mather to the New York Times.

Image Credit by Zachary DeBottis