Great Britain’s skateboarding team for the Olympics in Paris this summer will include Andrew Macdonald, a 50-year-old father-of-three.
Macdonald will be joined on Great Britain’s skateboarding team by two teenagers, Lola Tambling, 16, and Sky Brown, 15, who made history at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games after becoming Britain’s youngest summer medallist with her bronze.
Macdonald, who started skateboarding when he was 12 and turned pro in 1994, has won eight gold medals for the United States at the X Games, including five doubles titles with skateboarding legend Tony Hawk.
Macdonald was born in Massachusetts and qualifies to compete for Team GB through his father, who was born in Luton.
He will turn 51 on July 31, five days after the Paris Games begin.
Macdonald admitted he needed a ‘miracle’ to qualify but delivered an impressive performance in the final qualifier in Budapest on Sunday.
‘Getting a qualification place at the Olympics is something I never thought would happen,’ Macdonald said.
‘It took a hundred things aligning for me to get the points needed and luckily for me, they did.’
He is now set to become the oldest-ever Olympic skateboarder.
‘I FaceTimed my wife and I said, ‘Hey, remember when we got married? I told you I would take you to Paris as often as I could? Sorry that I haven’t. It’s been 15 years since we’ve gone. But what do you think about going this summer?’ And she just looked at me blankly, like wasn’t really sure,’ Macdonald said.
‘And we’re FaceTiming and then my eight-year-old daughter sticks her head into the camera and she’s like, ‘Are we going to the Olympics?’, and I was like, ‘yes’, and my eight-year-old is like, ‘Oh!’, and my wife’s face just went, and her jaw hit the ground.
‘It was good. We had a little cry about it.’
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