PARIS — Léon Marchand exited one way, surrounded by police. Tony Hawk stood in the opposite direction, surrounded by reporters. Not an hour earlier, Snoop Dogg rolled into La Concorde with Devin Booker, and offered up dabs to the competitors.
In the aftermath and in the middle of it stood Tom Schaar, an American flag draped across his shoulders and a silver medal dangling from his neck. It was, he admitted, a lot to take in.
Skateboarding has fought hard to find its toehold in the Olympics, a made-for-fans spectacle suffering through a fan-less version for its debut in Tokyo. This was not its first moment; it’s had plenty here in an eye-candy venue that offers views of the Eiffel Tower, and the Luxor Obelisk. But surely it was the coolest. Dripping with it, if you will.
In an ideal world for the Americans, who boast the sport’s epicenter in San Diego, Schaar would have walked away with a gold. But on his third try and needing to score better than Keegan Palmer’s 93.11, Schaar fell late in his run on an “alley oop 540 over the hoop” (in layman’s terms, something really hard to do on a skateboard), and the Australian Palmer took his second consecutive gold medal in men’s park. “If Tom had that last run, I think it could have been a gold-medal run,” said Hawk, a savvy observer but also one with skin in the game. He sponsors Schaar.
Snoop Dogg and Tony Hawk take in Wednesday’s men’s park skateboarding final at Place de la Concorde. (Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images)
“I guess we’ll never know,” the 24-year-old Schaar said with a shrug, not even the slightest hint of anger.
This is how they do it in skateboarding, the only sport where cut-off, over-the-knee shorts count as a uniform, and Black Sabbath blares from the speakers. Snoop not only entered the stadium, he sashayed his way right down to the edges of the course, as “Still D.R.E.” played in his honor, going in for hugs with Schaar, fellow American Tate Carew and anyone else who wanted one. He created such a commotion that the score for Schaar’s second run (which would earn him the silver medal) got lost in the chaos, before making his exit. For comparison: This would be like Snoop waltzing across the 50-yard line somewhere between downs at the Super Bowl.
“I landed my run and looked up and he was standing there in front of me,” Schaar said. “That was pretty cool, probably the best moment here.”
Schaar is enjoying something of a second career. A prodigy, he became the first person to land a 1080 (three revolutions). He was 12. Though middle-aged by skateboarding standards now, Schaar is new to park. He started out on what’s called vert, before switching over when park gained traction. He got really good really quick but failed to make it to Tokyo, unable to qualify in the last lead-up event. This time he got the necessary points, albeit in the very last event.
American Tom Schaar came up just short of gold Wednesday, taking silver behind friend Keegan Palmer. “There’s no animosity between any of us,” Schaar says. (Andy Cheung / Getty Images)
There are, like there are in every sport, young guns coming for him — two of them his own teammates, 17-year-old Gavin Bottger, who grew up idolizing Schaar but didn’t make it out of qualifying, and 19-year-old Tate Carew, who finished fifth.
But neither he nor Palmer, who is 21, are exactly fading into the limelight. As Hawk suggested, this competition belonged to them. In the first of three finals rounds, they were the only two skaters to post clean runs. Pedro Barros, silver medalist in Tokyo, challenged in the third run, but eventually it came down to Schaar and Palmer, as it should be.
The two are close pals. Palmer is Australian in that his dad is Australian and he lived there for 14 years, but he was born in San Diego and calls the skateboarding hub his home. He and Schaar live 15 minutes apart and skate together often. Before the finals competition — for which they qualified 1-2 — they decided to craft a handshake.
“We actually just stole the one LeBron and Anthony Edwards do,” Schaar said.
So while he was devastated when he fell — and laid on the ground like a crucified piece of roadkill, arms and legs splayed, for a good half second — Schaar also was OK with how it went down.
“It’s not supposed to be a super competitive thing,” he said, defying and summarizing the Olympic spirit in nine words. “There’s no animosity between any of us. It’s just about skating.”
GO DEEPER
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(Top photo of Tom Schaar and Keegan Palmer at Wednesday’s final: Ulrik Pedersen / DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
