By Mimosa Spencer and Rory Carroll
PARIS (Reuters) – The oldest skateboarder at the Paris Olympics, Britain’s Andy Macdonald, 51, failed to make it on to the podium but he won over the rowdy crowds at the packed La Concorde stadium on Wednesday.
“I definitely won the gold medal for most fun,” Macdonald told journalists.
“I’m so excited just to be have qualified for Paris because that was like the Hail Mary long shot from the get-go.”
The crowd roared as Macdonald zipped around the course, gasping at his fakie 540 — the trick that qualified him in Budapest for the Games.
For his second run, he added his signature nollie heel flip.
“I was really nervous about it because I didn’t want to fall in the Olympics on the trick I invented,” he said. “And I got it done.”
Macdonald, flashed a broad grin after each run, including when the audience booed in disagreement with his score from the judges when it popped up on the screen.
For skateboarding hero Tony Hawk, Macdonald’s performance was a highlight.
“For him to come here and do his whole routine, to me that was the viral moment,” said Hawk, 56.
“I was really proud of Andy… I skate with him all the time and he’s representing our generation.”
After four decades in the sport, Macdonald said it was still his passion.
“I’m still enjoying every minute of it.”
Born 10 years after the first organised skateboarding competition in 1963, Macdonald took up the sport when he was 12.
He has said he saw it as the great unifier between the generations and competed in Paris alongside his 16-year-old teammate Sky Brown.
For 27-year-old Steven Pineiro from Puerto Rico, who competed in both the Tokyo and Paris Games and has his sights on the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, Macdonald, with his long career, is an inspiration.
“I better take care of myself so I can do that,” he said.
(Reporting by Mimosa Spencer; editing by Clare Fallon)
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