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PARIS — Skateboarding has arrived at the Olympics. In its second Olympic incarnation, skateboarding capped a successful run in Paris with the men’s street finals on Wednesday afternoon.
Tony Hawk kicked off the event with a ceremonial start, and when it was over, Keegan Palmer of Australia won gold, Tom Schaar of Team USA won silver, and Augusto Akio of Brazil won bronze.
The final featured the defending gold and silver medalists from Tokyo, Palmer and Brazil’s Pedro Barros, respectively. Two members of the U.S. team, Tate Carew and Schaar, made it to the final against American icons Hawk and Snoop Dogg.
In the final competition, each skater had three attempts to achieve his personal best. The competitors had a difficult time at the beginning; the first six skaters crashed. Schaar was the first to complete his run and set the pace with a time of 90.11. Palmer immediately surpassed him with a time of 93.11 and was awarded the provisional gold medal.
Akio started the second round with a time of 81.34, followed by his compatriot Pedro Barros with a time of 86.41 and Carew took the silver medal with a time of 91.17.
Schaar, skating to “Still DRE,” edged Carew into the silver medal position with a 92.23 and enjoyed some love from Snoop himself as he finished his second run.
So, as the third round began, Palmer and the two Americans — Schaar and Palmer — occupied the three podium spots. Akio started the round with a final run of 91.85, good enough for a provisional bronze. Barros ran a spectacular race, but was just short of a podium finish, finishing with a best run of 91.65.
As podium opportunities dwindled, Carew was unable to complete the final run and missed out on a medal opportunity. Schaar had a gold medal run in her final opportunity but was unable to land her final jump. However, she still had silver and Palmer claimed her second gold.
