Image Credit: Getty/Team USA
(North County Beat) – San Dieguito Academy graduate Tom Schaar clinched the silver medal in the men’s park skateboarding final at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday, marking the second skateboarding medal for Team USA secured by an Encinitas athlete.
Schaar, 24, earned the silver with a top score of 92.23 in the best-of-three-rounds format. He finished behind Australia’s Keegan Palmer, who scored 93.11 and also took gold in Tokyo, and ahead of Brazil’s Augusto Akio, who earned the bronze with a score of 91.85.
This marked Schaar’s Olympic debut, having narrowly missed a spot on the Tokyo 2020 team with a fourth-place finish. He is now one of two U.S. skateboarders to win medals at the 2024 Olympics, joining fellow Encinitas skater Jagger Eaton, who also secured a silver in the men’s street skating final last month.
In the park skateboarding competition, skaters have three 45-second runs to impress the judges, with only their highest-scoring run being counted. Schaar secured his 92.23 in the second round and attempted to surpass Palmer’s 93.11 in the third round. However, he fell short after losing his board while attempting a 720 with less than 10 seconds remaining. Despite this, his strong performance in the second round was enough to keep him on the podium.
Schaar, originally from Malibu before moving to Encinitas, was one of two Americans in the park finals. The other was Tate Carew, 19, from San Diego, who finished in fifth place.
Schaar burst onto the national skateboarding scene at the age of 12 when he landed the first-ever 1080 in competition and became the youngest X Games gold medalist.
In the women’s park skate final the day before, Encinitas skater Bryce Wettstein represented Team USA, entering the final after a strong second-place finish in the preliminary. She ended up in sixth place, the same position she achieved in Tokyo in 2021.
Australia’s Arisa Trew, 14, won the gold medal, securing a sweep for Australia in both the men’s and women’s park skating events in Paris. Japan’s Kokona Hiraki took silver, and Great Britain’s Sky Brown earned the bronze.
Other North County athletes on the U.S. skateboarding team in Paris included Oceanside’s Gavin Bottger, 17, who narrowly missed the men’s park final after finishing tenth in the prelims. Ruby Lilley, 17, also from Oceanside, placed 13th in the women’s park preliminary.
This is the second Olympics where skateboarding has been included as an official sport, with several North County athletes paving the way as part of the inaugural team in 2021, including Wettstein, Eaton, Jordyn Barrett, and Brighton Zeuner.
