Realistically, given that Men’s Park was the crescendo of skateboarding at the Paris Olympics, there was never any chance it was going to disappoint. Too many hungry, hungry rippers prepared to lay it all on the line for that to happen.
When the cut for the finals hovers around the 88.98 mark, you best believe the standard was ballistic. As with the female division yesterday, it was a full house of 6,400 nutters decked out in the all the colours of the rainbow. On top of national support, the crowd had their own favourites too, and they weren’t afraid to let the judges know when they disapproved. Not making the cut to finals but very much on the crowd’s mind were Marseille’s Vincent Matheron, Puerto Rico’s Steven Pineiro, South Africa’s Dallas Oberholzer and Great Britain’s enthusiastic Andy Macdonald.
Unlucky not to be in the finals by only the very thinnest of margins was Sweden’s Hampus Winberg, edged out by Australia’s Keefer Wilson who, having already qualified and with only Andy Mac to drop in after him still put down a blistering last run to bump himself up from 8th to 5th.
When the highly, highly anticipated finals started 90 minutes later, Australia’s Keegan Palmer emphatically retained his Olympic gold medal in Men’s Skateboard Park that afternoon in a contest big on surprises and one which threw many expectations out the window.
In the first instance, only two out of eight finalists completed their initial runs.
Palmer’s was an unassailable 93.11, but silver medalist Tom Schaar had to improve on his first run in order to hold onto silver.
Happy-go-lucky Brazilian Augusto Akio, who qualified by the skin of his teeth for the finals, left it until his final run to vault the leaderboard and push highly-fancied American Tate Carew out of third place to take bronze with a run he will remember for the rest of his life.
In so doing, he pipped compatriot Pedro Barros for a medal by 0.2 of a point in front of a sellout crowd which included Snoop Dogg, Tony Hawk and French President Emmanuel Macron.
A fittingly dramatic conclusion to the greatest set of skateboard contests of all time, which have formed some of the unquestionable highlights of the entire Paris Olympic Games of 2024.
