‘Insane’: Australian teenager Keegan Palmer joins Olympic greats

Most Aussies would not have recognised Keegan Palmer 48 hours ago, but his “crazy” Olympic debut has quickly made him a cult hero.

Most of the Australian population would not have recognised the name Keegan Palmer last week, but the teenager has become an overnight sensation with pundits drawing comparisons to the legendary Ian Thorpe.

Ranked fifth in world, the Aussie skateboarder entered the Tokyo Games with an outside chance of clinching a medal.

Palmer qualified fifth in Thursday morning’s qualification session with a respectable score of 77.00, but it was his first attempt in the final that caught the world’s attention.

The 18-year-old phenom pulled off a kickflip body varial 540 with the ease of someone playing a Tony Hawk video game, registering an imposing score of 94.04.

But he wasn’t done there, not by any means.

Unsatisfied with the comfortable victory, Palmer stunned the Tokyo spectators with an impeccable 95.83 in his third and final attempt.

Palmer had cemented his place in the history books, winning the first ever Olympic gold for the men’s park skateboarding.

He also becomes Australia’s third-youngest Olympic gold medallist of the century, behind only swimmers Kyle Chalmers (Rio 2016) and Thorpe (Sydney 2000).

Olympic live blog: Day 14 coverage

Keegan Palmer lit up the skating rink in Tokyo.

“It still feels so surreal … Dude, I have a gold medal around my neck,” he told Channel 7 on Thursday evening.

“I’m so, like, beyond hyped to be able to do it for Australia and to bring home a gold medal.

“I was just like really trying to put down a solid first run … It ended up being such a high score. I was so blown away by my score. I was so hyped. It was crazy to watch it back on the TV and to be able to put down like my third run with my trick and to get an even higher score was incredible. I have never got such a high score in my life. To be able to do it at the Olympics was insane.

“I wanted to put on a big show to make everybody so hyped back home. I ended up completing the whole run.”

Australian teammate Kieran Woolley finished fifth with a best score of 82.04, while Brazil’s Pedro Barros and America’s Cory Juneau won silver and bronze respectively.

If you’ve never understood the difference between being “stoked” and “super-stoked” this photo of Olympic Gold Medal winning skateboarder Keegan Palmer should clear it up for you#SuperStokedpic.twitter.com/G5biv8RwKU

— Adam Spencer (@adambspencer) August 5, 2021

READ MORE: Tragedy behind child star’s renaissance

Viewers couldn’t help but marvel at the camaraderie among athletes in Thursday’s final.

The skaters would embrace each other after entertaining runs, at times celebrating their rivals’ success over their own. Nobody seemed prouder of Palmer’s triumph than his opponents.

“We are so different compared to everybody else,” Palmer admitted.

“Everyone is going and training as hard as we can but to be able to have like a family with you and have all your best friends skating with you like you have been doing for the last years,

“We are just eating at the cafes all together and all the countries are eating with their countries. We are just like France, Brazil, America, Australia, all of us eating together. It is so cool and different.”

Keegan Palmer celebrates with Brazil’s Luiz Francisco.