‘It means the world’: Palmer scores Australia’s first skateboarding gold

In a matter of minutes, Australia’s Keegan Palmer went from being relatively unknown to being mentioned in the same breath as Ian Thorpe.

Palmer, 18, won Australia’s 17th gold medal in Tokyo by finishing first in the men’s park skateboarding final.

Skateboarder Keegan Palmer won gold in the men’s park final.Credit: AP

He is only the second 18-year-old to win a gold medal for Australia this century, along with Thorpe (Sydney 2000, 400m freestyle) and Kyle Chalmers (Rio 2016, 100m freestyle).

Palmer has an American accent. He was born in San Diego to Australian parents, and they moved to the Gold Coast when he was young. He learnt to ride the skateboard and to surf in Australia - he now lives in the US - so that’s why chose to represent Australia (he has dual citizenship).

“It was a lot of hard work and it paid off today, and I’m so grateful to be able to bring it [gold] back to Australia,” Palmer told reporters after his win. “It means the world to me because that’s where it all started. And I’m so grateful to be able to do this with everybody like this and I’d never would have expected it, and it’s a huge honour and I can’t believe it.

“I lived in Australia for around like 14 years, and then moved to San Diego for the last four years with my whole family, Mom and Dad, little brother, because there were really good training parks to train for this event. If you know San Diego you know that’s what skateboarding is.

Keegan Palmer pulled out all the tricks to claim skateboarding gold.Credit: Getty Images

“I take myself as a full Australian, my [Australian] accent isn’t too strong, so sorry to every Australian out there to hear this ... it [Australia] is where everything starts, where I learnt how to skate, it’s where all the hard work came from, all this blood sweat and tears. All the hardest work that came through and had to bring it home for Australia and I did, so I’m so beyond grateful for.”

Ranked fifth in the world, Palmer was actually considered Australia’s best hope in the skateboarding coming into Tokyo, although there wasn’t much hype or expectation on him, not at least from the general public, heading into Thursday’s final.

That cover was blown when he scored a huge 94.04 in his first run, then an even more stunning 95.83 in his third.

No one else in the final scored above 90. His first run would have been good enough to win.

“I still love to surf so when I skate I kind of like try to pull it in a little bit of surfing style and have like fun with it,” Palmer said. “The main deal is just having fun with it and like I’ll have a lot of fun when I skateboard because I love learning new things and I try to make everything look as clean as possible ’cause that’s the way I like to do and it worked out good.”

He certainly did look good. One move in his final run - the very difficult kickflip body varial 540 - set tongues wagging.

To pull it off he soared up the ramp, flew into the air and then completed the kick flip at the top of that flight.

As he was doing so he began to turn, completing the 540 (one-and-a-half spins) while falling back down to earth.

Palmer’s Australian teammate Kieran Woolley, 17, finished fifth.

Brazil’s Pedro Barros claimed silver with a score of 86.14 with American world No.2 Cory Juneau taking bronze with 84.13.

Much like the women on Wednesday, the camaraderie was apparent among the young skateboarders.

“Skateboarding is a family,” Palmer said. “No one cares about what country you come from. If you put down hard runs people will support you. I have known these guys since I was nine years old. It’s what makes skateboarding so great.

“I love you Mum and Dad, thank you for everything.”

Earlier in the qualifying rounds, Woolley, posted the second-highest score with an 82.69 which was only bettered by world No.3 Luiz Francisco, one of three Brazilians to reach the eight-man final.

Palmer’s qualifying score was 77.00, and he began the final ranked fifth.

There was an early sensation when world No.1 and reigning world champion Heimana Reynolds was eliminated, the Honolulu born skater failing to finish any of his three rides in the event’s opening heat.