When Andy Macdonald was racking up X Games gold medals in the late 1990s and early 2000s, many of the skaters against whom he competed in the Olympic men’s park skateboarding prelims on Wednesday hadn’t even been born.
That doesn’t mean, however, that they don’t appreciate what he’s done for the sport in the past almost four decades. Anyone with a background in skateboarding knows about Macdonald—his record number of X Games vert medals; skateboarding through the White House; serving as a skateboarding instructor at Woodward and the YMCA.
And Macdonald added another unlikely accolade to his career this week, when he became the oldest skateboarder to compete in the Olympics, at 51.
Macdonald competes for Team Great Britain—his father, Roderick, was born in England. The younger Macdonald’s fellow Team GB park skateboarding teammates, Sky Brown and Lola Tambling, are both 16. On Tuesday, Brown took bronze in the women’s park final.
“Skateboarding is my fountain of youth,” Macdonald told me. “I try to keep up with them, and it keeps me young. Skateboarding is old enough now that it has a history. It’s an oral history, and people who weren’t involved with it might never truly know it. That’s my opportunity, to pass that on, and at the same time reap the benefits of being around young people.”
Macdonald is used to playing the mentor role. For 33 years, he’s served as a visiting pro at Woodward Camps, trying to pass that skateboarding knowledge onto the younger generations. Now his daughters, who are 14 and eight, are attending Woodward camp.
Only recently did Macdonald start thinking about potentially trying to qualify for Team GB and compete in Paris.
“There was always a thought in the back of my mind of, ‘Maybe I can get a spot; maybe I could do this,’” Macdonald said. “‘Wouldn’t that be fun to try as a 50 year old?’”
Macdonald discussed the idea with his wife, Rebecca. He would get his British passport and enter the qualifying events. Most of his competitors would be half his age—if not younger. Her response? “You’d be crazy not to.”
“My wife spent a year in college studying in Paris and speaks French. When I married her 23 years ago, I said in my wedding vows, ‘I’ll take you to Paris as often as I can,’” Macdonald said. “The last time was a demo with Tony Hawk probably 15 years ago,” Macdonald added with a chuckle. “Our now 18-year-old boy was a toddler.”
At the final Olympic Qualifier Series event in Budapest, Macdonald finished 15th—and made the cut for Paris.
“I called my wife and said, ‘Remember when I married you I said I would take you to Paris as often as I can? Sorry. How about I take you to Paris this summer?’”
At first, Macdonald’s wife didn’t understand. But eight-year-old Zoe popped up on camera and started screaming.
After Macdonald’s second run, he suffered a cut that left him bloodied. And yet he dropped in for his third and final run and put on a stylish show nonetheless, including a Japan air and a body varial 540.
When it became clear after Macdonald’s third and final run that he would not progress to the final—his highest score was 77.66—the crowd directed a chorus of boos at the Olympic judges.
But the boos soon turned to applause. And to hear the roaring crowd—UK fans, sure, but the cheers came from everyone—after Macdonald took his final run of three, you would have thought he’d just made the podium.
At the Olympics.
At 51 years old.
“It’s been a joy skating with all the teenagers that are my teammates, and really a learning experience for me,” Macdonald said.
“I’ve been skateboarding for almost 40 years. Olympic skateboarding is all new to me. And I’m learning all about this whole other side of skateboarding so many people don’t know about.”
A Legacy of Skating
His first job was at SeaWorld, posing for photos in a furry Shamu suit while trying not to trip over its flipper feet. Pay: $4.75 per hour. He was sleeping on a friend’s couch in Ocean Beach.
He quit SeaWorld and turned pro in 1994. In 1998, a reader’s poll in Transworld Skateboarding magazine named him the “best overall skater.” In 1999, he skated down a marble hallway at the White House as part of an anti-drug event. He’s won 22 X Games medals, including eight golds.
Now, the Olympics.
A Last-Minute Decision
Macdonald didn’t attempt to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, but two local women who did for other nations encouraged him to try for Paris because, well, didn’t he say his father is English?
He called his father in Michigan and asked about getting a British passport.
‘He said, ‘Why would you want to do that? I don’t even have a British passport,’” MacDonald says.
His father was born in Luton outside London but moved to the United States with his family during World War II at age 5. A British law grants citizenship to any siblings born before 1983.
That was the easy part. Now he had to qualify.
“A Hail Mary long shot,” Macdonald says.
Entering the final qualifier in Budapest, he was ranked 38th and needed to reach the 16-man semifinals to climb into the top 25 and make the Paris field.
He fell on his first preliminary run.
He fell on his second.
The board went sideways on a jump in his third and he was about to fall again, only to reach down, grab the board, stuff it under his foot and save “the run of my life.”
That put him in sixth place with the top 11 skaters still to go, and the first 10 scored higher. But Brazil’s Pedro Barros — world champion, Olympic silver medalist, ranked sixth in the world — uncharacteristically fell on all three runs. Macdonald was in the semis. Macdonald was in the Olympics.
“All the planets aligned for him,” Hawk says. “I’m really stoked for him.”
A Legacy of Inspiration
Despite missing the final, Macdonald left his mark on the Paris Games. His presence at the Olympics, at the age of 51, serves as a powerful reminder that age is just a number, and that passion and dedication can overcome any obstacle. He showed the world that skateboarding is not just for teenagers, but a sport that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.
As Macdonald said himself, “Age really is just a number – you can do whatever you want to do. For me, it’s skateboarding. For some other 50-plus person, it could be riding a bike or lifting weights. It is my livelihood but it’s also my mental and physical fitness. I never want to go to the gym, I’d rather go and skate for five hours a day. If I’m home and take a few days off injured, my wife will be, ‘You need to go skate, you are getting on my nerves’, and I’ll always be better for it.”
Macdonald’s journey to the Olympics is a testament to his passion for skateboarding and his unwavering commitment to the sport. He may not have won a medal, but he won something far more valuable: the hearts and minds of a generation of skaters and fans.
He’s already inspiring countless young people to follow their dreams, no matter how old they are or what others may think. That’s a legacy that will last far longer than any Olympic medal.
