PARIS (AP) — Keegan Palmer struggled to wrap his mind around his accomplishment after successfully defending his Olympic park skateboarding title at the Paris Games.
“Wild, crazy feeling dude,” the 21-year-old Australian said Wednesday. “To be able to say I’m a two-time Olympian, let alone two-time Olympic gold medalist is a crazy, crazy feeling. I literally can’t believe it.”
Palmer scored a 93.11 to take his second gold medal.
His performance wowed a crowd that included skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, Snoop Dogg and U.S. basketball star Devin Booker. Palmer seemed almost as excited about Snoop Dogg being in the stadium as he did about the hardware draped around his neck.
“I saw him after I landed my first run,” he said, “I pulled out my camera and had to start filming him.”
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.
Schaar, who is good friends with Palmer, enjoyed the camaraderie of the final.
“Loved just being able to skate with my friends,” Schaar said. “That’s what we do back home and that’s what skateboarding is supposed to be about.”
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.
Hawk, one of the sport’s greatest pioneers and the first to land the aerial 900-degree maneuver, raved about Palmer’s skills.
“He can do the hardest vertical moves on smaller transitions,” he said. “And what I like about him is that he is taking the most technical vert moves and doing them in this setting because I feel like vert is really missing from these Games as a discipline and Keegan brings the Vert. So does Tom.”
Palmer beamed when told of Hawk’s praise.
“We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Tony,” he said. “Some of my tricks on my run Tony invented. We wouldn’t have events in skateboarding like this if Tony never did that 900 back in the day and he just exploded skateboarding for us. We owe a lot to him.”
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.
“We’re the king and queen of skateboarding park right now,” Palmer said. “And we both grew up in the same town, so Gold Coast is holding it down right now.”
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