Skateboarder Andy Macdonald calls qualifying for the Olympics at the age of 50 ‘pretty surreal’

Fifty-year-old skateboarding superstar Andy Macdonald has described the “surreal” prospect of representing Britain at the Paris Olympics alongside teenage teammates Sky Brown and Lola Tambling.

Macdonald had already won eight prestigious X Games gold medals before Brown and Tambling were born. He admitted that it never occurred to him that his illustrious career could culminate in a spot on the world’s biggest sporting stage.

“I was part of a demonstration at the closing ceremony of the 1996 Games in Atlanta and we thought this was the closest skateboarding would ever get to the Olympics,” Macdonald told the PA news agency.

“When I started the sport, it wasn’t even an idea to go to the Olympics, but here I am, qualifying at the age of 50, and it feels quite surreal.”

US-based Macdonald secured an unlikely Olympic spot thanks to his British-born father, squeezing into the starting blocks for the men’s park event after reaching the semi-finals of the final qualifying event in Budapest last month.

He becomes the oldest skateboarding Olympian in Paris, joining Brown, now 15, who became the youngest ever member of Team GB at the postponed Tokyo 2021 Games, where she won a bronze medal, and 16-year-old Tambling in a three-man British team that truly spans the age spectrum.

Macdonald, who counts a string of doubles titles among his X Games titles alongside the great Tony Hawk, said teaming up with Brown and Tambling is helping him keep track of the times – albeit with an increasing number of bumps and bruises along the way.

“Once you go down, it takes longer to jump back up. And as you get older, you get more timid and afraid of those big commitment tricks,” Brown added.

“But I don’t do cross training or strength and conditioning training. I just skateboard, and that’s all I’ve done since I was 12 years old.

“If you’re a 50-year-old skateboarder, chances are you’re going to skate with younger kids anyway. The energy I get from my teammates as I try to keep up with them is literally my fountain of youth.”