PARIS, France — Australia’s Keegan Palmer scored a 93.11 Wednesday to successfully defend his Olympic park skateboarding title at the Paris Games.
His performance wowed a crowd that included skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, Snoop Dogg and U.S. basketball star Devin Booker.
The 21-year-old Palmer took gold in the sport's Olympic debut three years ago in Tokyo. He led in the prelims Wednesday and then throughout the finals after posting the top score on the first of his three runs.
He'd already secured the gold medal before his final run and fell after also crashing on his second run. But his magnificent first run was all he needed to go home with another gold medal.
American Tom Schaar posted a 92.23 on his second run to win silver. He opened the finals with a 90.11 before completing more difficult tricks on his next go to secure second place.
Brazil’s Augusto Akio won bronze with a score of 91.85 on his final run. He entertained the crowd by juggling before the prelims and did another routine after the first round while holding his skateboard in his mouth.
He narrowly held off his teammate Pedro Barros, who scored 91.65 to finish fourth.
American Tate Carew, who entered the competition at No. 1 in the World Skate rankings, finished fifth with a 91.17. It appeared as if he'd beat that score and get onto the podium on his third run, but he fell with 14 seconds left to end his day.
Italy’s Alex Sorgente was sixth at 84.26, Brazil’s Luigi Cini got seventh with a 76.89 and Australia’s Keefer Wilson was eighth with a 58.36.
American Gavin Bottger, who won gold at last year’s World Skateboarding Championship, was eliminated after finishing 10th in the prelims with a score of 86.95.
Others who failed to make the finals were 51-year-old Andy Macdonald and 49-year-old South African Dallas Oberholzer.
Macdonald made history as the oldest skateboarder to compete in the Olympics. He and Oberholzer are the older guys in a competition where the youngest entrant is 16-year-old Viktor Solmunde of Denmark.
Macdonald finished 18th with a score of 77.66 and Oberholzer was last with a 33.83. He also finished last in Tokyo.
“People are like: ‘Are you going for the gold?’ And I’m like: If they’re giving away gold medals for whoever has the most fun, I got it wrapped up," Macdonald said. "I definitely won the gold medal for most fun.”
Palmer's victory gave Australia its second skateboarding gold in as many days after 14-year-old Arisa Trew won the women’s park event, becoming the country's youngest ever Olympic champion.
