When not dropping in off 14-foot vertical ramps, Andy Macdonald's side hustle involves earning pocket money as a consultant for skateboarding companies looking to crack the youth market. He is ideally suited to the role.
If ever you were to find yourself needing to know what someone like his 13-year-old British teammate, Tommy Calvert, might look for in a new skateboarding product, Macdonald is the man in the know.
"I skate with these kids every day," says Macdonald. "I talk like them and I wear their clothes. I'm just like Tommy. "I just..." he pauses before chuckling upon realising how best to explain the key difference between him and Calvert. "I just have grey hair."
Last summer, Macdonald, a legend of the sport who once skated through the White House on a trip to meet the then president, Bill Clinton, turned 50. This summer, he hopes to make his Olympic debut in Paris the week he turns 51.
If things go to plan, he will be joined there in the park competition-one of two skateboarding disciplines contested at the Olympics - by Calvert. This would mean a veteran father of three competing for Team GB alongside a boy not even old enough to attend high school in his adopted home of California.
No national skateboarding squad has featured a wider age range than the 37 years that separate Calvert and Macdonald. In a sport predisposed to appeal to a young demographic, Calvert pushes the lower end of a traditional age limit that Macdonald exceeds by a number of decades; generations merging in the least conventional of Olympic sports.
It is close to two years since the pair first met at a skateboarding training facility in San Diego that has subsequently become something of a second home for them both on their Parisian pursuit.
この記事は The Guardian の January 02, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は The Guardian の January 02, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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