PARIS — Skateboarding might be the ideal Olympic sport. It contains all of the elements of the motto: faster, higher, stronger. It is attractive to young viewers, mainly because many of the protagonists are still in middle school.
And it has enough danger and jeopardy to wow the most barnacled of sports fan. The podium for the women’s park competition had a total age of 45. The man who came 18th in the men’s park contest, Andy Macdonald of Britain , was 51.
Arisa Trew, the girl who won the women’s competition, is 14 years old. Her dream of skating at the Olympics began in 2021, watching the inaugural competition in Tokyo. The silver medallist, Cocona Hiraki of Japan, is 15 and the girl who won the bronze, Britain’s Sky Brown, is 16.
If it were gymnastics, there would be outcry. But this is skateboarding: Olympics or not, this trio and the other five people in Tuesday’s final and the eight in Wednesday’s would be skating anyway. This is what they do.
This is what they enjoy. Yes, there are a few twisted ankles along the way – or in bronze medallist Sky Brown’s case, a ruptured medial cruciate ligament, a concussion, a dislocated shoulder and various other injuries, but she is different – but that is part and parcel of buying into life on a plank of maple. Read Next Why I'm skateboarding for GB at the Olympics - despite being 51 (and American) “I wasn’t here for the scores, I am so excited just to be here,” Macdonald said.
“It is the experience of a .