By: Yutong Cai

Andy MacDonald is 50 years old, and he is going to the Paris Olympics, where he
will be the oldest person to compete in skateboarding this year.

Most skateboarders are young. 11 year old Zheng Haohao from China will also be competing in the Paris Olympics. When skateboarding first came into the Olympics as a sport, the gold medalists at Tokyo in 2021 were 22, 19, 19, and 13 years old.

Macdonald is representing Britain although he was born in the U.S. because has a British father, qualifying for Britain’s team by finishing just high enough.

To get into the Olympics, Macdonald had to get into the semifinals, and he had never made a quarterfinal before. The only way he would have a chance was if he did the best run ever and the hardest tricks he knew.

There were 3 runs in the semifinals. Macdonald fell on his first two. On the third run, as he went to flip the board on a trick, it floated in front of him and he missed. But Macdonald grabbed it and put it on his feet like he meant to.

That meant extra points in skateboarding, and the judges said that he didn’t do the skill correctly, but he should have fallen and he didn’t: Extra points.

Macdonald scored 11 points, higher than he had ever scored before on the tour, qualifying for the Olympics.

When asked what was different from skating at his age, Macdonald said it hurt more to fall and took longer to heal. He said when he saw kids fall and get back up, he thinks: “Man if I fell like that, I’d be out for two weeks.”

But Macdonald also said he just never stopped. That is how you keep on doing it in your 50s.

Image Credit by HASAN ZAHRA