TOKYO: Keegan Palmer of Australia won the last skateboarding gold medal at the Tokyo Games on Thursday, breaking what had been Japanese domination in all three previous events.
The silver from the men's park event went to Pedro Barros of Brazil. It was Brazil's third medal — all silvers — from skateboarding's debut as an Olympic sport.
Cory Juneau took bronze, the second medal from skateboarding for the United States. The first for the U.S., also a bronze, was won by Jagger Eaton in men’s street.
Palmer, who is 18 and was born in the United States, was untouchable with two pulsating runs of tricks and stunts in the eight-man final.
He impressed the judges not only with the difficulty of his spinning jumps off the walls of the huge skate bowl but also in the way that he strung them together in his seamless 45-second runs.
Palmer was the only skater to break past the 90-point mark in the competition at the Ariake Urban Sports Park — and he did so twice in the final. His 94.04 with his first run put huge pressure on the seven other finalists to go big. Most went too big, with repeated falls, as they tried to catch him.
He then pushed the gold even further out of reach with his third and final run that scored 95.83.
His gold was the first medal in skateboarding for Australia. The golds in the other three events — men's street and women's park and street — all went to Japanese skaters.