Tony Hawk Recently Had Comical Line About Skating in Olympics

Hawk was asked about unretiring for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
Tony Hawk
Tony Hawk / Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports

Skateboarding is an Olympic sport. It is being played for the second time at the Paris Games after making its debut during the 2020 Games, but the athletes may not be as well-known yet as some of skateboarding's most influential figures of all time. Tony Hawk, of course, is the name people think of when it comes to skateboarding.

Hawk is 56 years old and has been retired from professional skating since 2003. In recent years, Hawk has been winding down his skating on the hobby side too, completing some tricks for the last time ever.

But with the sport getting a new stage in the Olympics, would it possibly lure Hawk out of retirement to chase something he never got the chance to achieve: An Olympic medal?

No shot.

"I don't think you want to see me competing when I'm 60. That's probably not going to bode well," Hawk told PEOPLE.

For what it's worth, the oldest Olympian to medal was 72 (also oldest to ever participate). Oscar Swahn won gold in shooting. He broke his own record from 12 years prior when he became the oldest Olympian to medal at age 60.

Hawk may be out, but fans of nostalgia and our favorite athletes of bygone eras can hold out hope for Tom Brady to play for the flag football team when that makes its debut in 2028.


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Josh Wilson

JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.