Australian Palmer retains Olympic skateboard crown

Australia’s Keegan Palmer won a thrilling skateboarding park final in Paris to retain his Olympic title.

Palmer won gold at Tokyo 2020 and a score of 93.11 on his first run in this final was enough land another.

The 21-year-old set the tone in the preliminaries on Wednesday at Place de la Concorde with a top score of 93.78, and backed it up in the final.

American Tom Schaar took silver with Brazil’s Augusto Akio winning bronze.

Earlier in the day, 51-year-old Andy Macdonald competed in the park heats, but was unable to book his spot in the final with a best run of 77.66 only enough to finish 18th out of 22.

Born in Massachusetts, USA, Macdonald qualified to represent Team GB via his Luton-born father.

Macdonald is a veteran of the sport, winning 22 medals, including eight golds, at the X Games.