By Amy Tennery
PARIS (Reuters) – Age is nothing but a number for Britain’s 50-year-old skater Andy Macdonald, who will compete in his first Olympics at Paris’ Place de la Concorde after nearly four decades in the sport.
Macdonald turns 51 next week and will compete in the men’s event on Aug. 7, with his age an obvious source of media fascination in a sport that features some of the youngest competitors, including his 16-year-old teammate Sky Brown.
“Everyone asks about my age, it’s generally the mainstream media that is like, ‘Woah, you’re this crazy 51-year-old at the skate park!'” he said.
“But I’ve been here, it’s not like I just showed up. I was already at the skate park when these kids showed up.”
Born only a decade after the first organised skateboarding competition in 1963, Macdonald took up the sport when he was 12 and sees it as the great unifier between the generations, having watched some of today’s toughest competitors since they were novices.
“In what other sport do you see, at a competitive level, teenagers and 50-year-olds competing together? We all share this bond,” he said.
“Skateboarding is literally my fountain of youth.”
Macdonald was born and raised in the United States and currently lives in sunny San Diego, California, but will compete for Britain because his father was born there.
While his age has proven no barrier to fitting in, his American accent and sensibilities stand out on the British team – though he insists he can hold his own.
“As I sit here drinking my Yorkshire Gold tea, I always get made fun of because I don’t have an accent,” he said.
“I’m the least British-sounding person on the team, for sure. But none of my teammates drink tea, and I’m like, ‘You guys call yourself British?’ They all drink coffee. So I’m sitting there drinking my tea.”
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in Paris; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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