Skateboarding

Watch as Australia's Keegan Palmer retains his Olympic title, winning the gold medal in the men's park final at Paris 2024.

Sonia Oxley
BBC Sport in Paris

Image source, Getty Images

Andy Macdonald's skateboarding Olympic debut at the age of 51 ended in the park heats but he called it "an experience of a lifetime".

Born in Massachusetts, USA, he qualified for Great Britain via his Luton-born father. A legend of the sport, who invented some of its tricks decades before the skateboarding was introduced at the Olympics at Tokyo 2020, he had the crowd on its feet in appreciation after all three of his runs.

But his best run of 77.66 put him 18th out of 22, with only the top eight qualifying for Wednesday's final.

"That is how you're supposed to do it, get your run down and then everything else is bonus," he told BBC Sport.

"Experience of a lifetime being at the Olympics.

"There are very few things that bring the world together. Sport is one of those things and the Olympics is one of them."

He said it had been a "long shot" to qualify for the Games in the first place but he clearly enjoyed every moment, waving his skateboard above his head and lapping up the cheers.

"The first run I didn't do the nollie heelflip," he added. "That's a trick I invented and I didn't want to bail on a trick that I invented.

"Then on my second round I put that in, then in my third round I put in the fake 540 that is the one that did it for me in Budapest [to help me qualify for Paris], it was totally a bonus if I could make it here.

"I did a backflip for the fans - thank you and goodnight!"

Australian defending champion Keegan Palmer (93.78) was the top qualifier, followed by American Tom Schaar (92.05) and Italy's Alex Sorgente (91.14). World number one Tate Carew qualified fourth with 90.42.

The eight-man final is from 16:30.

Team GB skateboarder Andy Macdonald, 51, participates in the Olympic park competition, scoring 77.66 on his final run but not enough to qualify for the eight-man final.