By: Hunter Ding

Skateboarding has long been a sport dominated by the young. In the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, where skateboarding made its debut as an Olympic sport, the gold medalists were Keegan Palmer (18) in Men’s Park, Yuto Horigome (22) in Men’s Street, Sakura Yosozumi (19) in Women’s Park, and Momiji Nishiya (13) in Women’s Street. This year, there will be a great number of young competitors, ranging from Zheng Haohao at 11 years old to Andy Macdonald at 50 years.

Mr. Macdonald was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, on July 31, 1973. He started skateboarding in 1986 when he was 12 years old and went professional in 1994. Though he was born in the United States, he is representing Britain due to the fact that he has a British father. He will be 51 by the time he competes in the park event, which would be in an environment reminiscent of a skate park, with ramps, bowls, and pipes. This is opposed to the street event, in which the arena mirrors an urban environment with features like handrails, stairs, and curbs.

The park event is structured as follows: each competition will start with 22 skaters and includes a preliminary round and a final round. Scoring is based on a 0-100 scale, based on overall performance, taking into account the height, difficulty, and variety of the skaters’ tricks. Each skater will take three 45-second runs and be ranked according to their highest-scoring single run. The top eight in the preliminary run will advance to the final round, where the same rules apply.

When Macdonald secured qualification in June 2024, he officially became the oldest Olympic skateboarder in history. Now, with the 2024 Summer Olympics approaching, we will see if his performance will stand out as well as his age.