Andy Macdonald won vert skateboarding at the 1996 X Games at age 22. He qualified in park skateboarding for the 2024 Paris Olympics at age 50.
Macdonald earned the next-to-last available spot in the 22-man Olympic field thanks largely to reaching the 16-man semifinals at the last Olympic qualifier in Budapest this weekend.
“Getting a qualification place at the Olympics is something I never thought would happen,” he said, according to Great Britain’s skateboarding federation. “It took a hundred things aligning for me to get the points needed and luckily for me, they did.”
Macdonald competed with Tony Hawk and Shaun White in the Summer X Games two decades ago.
He has a British father, making him eligible to represent Great Britain, according to British media.
“Andy owns the title for highest number of medals won at the X Games vert and holds the accolade of being the only person to skateboard in the White House,” according to Great Britain’s skateboarding federation.
He will not be the first skateboarder of his generation to compete at the Olympics.
In Tokyo, Denmark’s Rune Glifberg competed in skateboarding’s Olympic debut at age 46.
Glifberg competed at the very first X Games in 1995 -- and took third in the vert event won by Hawk in Rhode Island. He was also in the very first Tony Hawk Pro Skater game for the original PlayStation in 1999.
Glifberg attempted to qualify for Paris but did not make the cut.
