Fifty-year-old former X Games ace Andy Macdonald will join teenagers Sky Brown and Lola Tambling in a Great Britain skateboard squad for this summer’s Paris Olympics that spans the age spectrum.
Macdonald reached his first semi-final of the season at the last qualifying event in Budapest on Sunday to seal his unlikely place at the Games.
The American-born Macdonald, who won eight X Games gold medals including doubles title with the great Tony Hawk in the 1990s, came out of retirement in a quest to reach Paris after watching skateboarding’s Olympic debut in Tokyo.
Macdonald, who qualifies for Team GB as a result of his Luton-born father Roderick, said: “Getting a qualification place at the Olympics is something I never thought would happen.
Sky Brown: 15 years old Lola Tambling: 16 years old Andy MacDonald: 50 years old
All three skateboarders have QUALIFIED for @Paris2024 through the #OlympicQualifierSeries!!!
Age is just a number ✨ pic.twitter.com/wEDPvgBi4l
— Team GB (@TeamGB) June 23, 2024
“It took a hundred things aligning for me to get the points needed and luckily for me, they did.”
Brown, who became Britain’s youngest Olympic medallist when she won bronze in the Japanese capital, had already all but sealed her spot by virtue of winning last year’s World Championships.
The 15-year-old underscored her potential to repeat her medal success as she swept into a second place finish in Budapest, while 16-year-old Tambling also made the cut after reaching the semi-finals.
Meanwhile Team GB will send four climbers to Paris after Erin McNeice and Molly Thompson-Smith sealed their respective places in the final squad alongside Hamish McArthur and the already-qualified Toby Roberts.