A lot of people will be expecting Tate Carew to do well when he jumps into the park bowl at the Place de la Concorde.
The 19-year-old American will be the top-ranked skater in the world going into the men’s park skateboarding event in Paris 2024. He has a great record of achievements from the last two years.
Carew never finished lower than sixth in any of the six Olympic qualifiers he competed in before the Games. He won the first event in the Olympic Qualifier Series in Shanghai and finished on the podium three other times.
Few skaters have been as steady as Carew, but it’s not just the numbers that have made people look at the U.S. skater as a possible medalist in the men’s park field in Paris.
Tony Hawk, the famous skateboarder, told a story about how he saw something special in a skater while watching him work in an early Olympic qualifier in a podcast show that came out earlier this year.
“I watched a qualifying run about two years ago. It was Chris Gregson footage, so you know he was there for some reason.” Hawk told Jason Ellis and Carew’s Olympic partner Tom Schaar, “I just wrote the words “Tate, Paris 2024.”
“I saw it,” Hawk said for sure. “I believe he will do well.”
Hawk became even more interested in Carew, and over a week before the Games started, his company sponsored the U.S. skater and made him a “professional.”
Carew seemed at ease talking about his win in the People’s Republic of China in an interview with Olympics.com that happened not long after he won in China. But there was a big change when he talked about how it felt to hear Hawk’s words again.
“About six or seven months ago, someone told me that Chris Gregson and Tony had talked like that, and I just… Carew said, “I didn’t know what to say because I wasn’t close to Chris at the time and I didn’t ride for Tony, but it was so crazy to hear it.”
“Hearing it again on the podcast with Tom, and how they all talked about it…” I have no idea how to feel. It’s just an honor and a great praise.
Carew’s surprise that Hawk talked him up shows what kind of path the skater has taken to get to the top.
His journey to the Olympics doesn’t begin in Paris, but in Tokyo, when he was in the eighth grade and first tried to get to the Games.
At the beginning of the year, he told Olympics.com, “I was thrilled to be in the top 20 and maybe the sixth or seventh American.” It was more of an experience for me, and my parents were thrilled that I was even given the chance to do that.
In skating, it’s common for a young star to come on the scene all ready to shock everyone right away. But Carew’s path was more of a grind, where process and growth had to play a big role.
As the Olympic cycle for Paris started, he was a little older, stronger, and had more experience. This made him a much better candidate to start moving up the ranks and putting pressure on those ahead of him. As soon as the scores started coming in, he knew he was on the right track.
But even though Carew is now in first place, there is never a sign that he is going to settle down.
Carew shows glimpses of how thorough a competitor he is as he talks about his plan for Shanghai. Carew’s mind was always on the hunt for ways to keep getting better. He planned his lines four weeks in advance by watching the bowl and guessing what the judges would want and how they would react to the competition.
“Every night before I go to sleep, I think about what I can do the next day.” What do you think the judges should see? “Every night, my mind races and I think about every possible outcome,” Carew said.
“I do vert a lot.” One of the judges skates vert, so I know he likes certain vert tricks. People from the street also sit up there, so it’s possible that they’re more interested in the rail or the colorful ledge. I believe I only try to find a good mix.
“I try to have different flip tricks, 540s, and then things like lip tricks.” With figure skating, I think that’s the most important thing. I also believe that if you’re sure of your skating, the judges will notice and like it.
Carew is right to be interested in the specifics.
Since its start at the Tokyo Olympics, one of the most interesting things about men’s park has been how the sport has changed over time.
Recently, event finals have felt like sessions gone into overdrive as each skater drops tries to react to the other. This is because Carew and others like him are trying to shake up the establishment.
You can feel the electricity in the air as the skaters cheer each other on as they raise the bar between them.
The American skater showed off his skate IQ once more as he talked about the mood and some of the things that will be tough in Paris.
While I’m skating, I try not to pay attention to other people, but it turns into more of a session than a practice. It gets everyone excited when people land on something new or something they’ve always wanted to do.
Carew began, “Everyone has a very different style.” “I really like how Gavin Bottger skated the course—he was grinding across the whole rail.” That’s something that not many people can do, and it’s clear that his street skills helped a lot.
This guy, Pedro Barros, goes so big, and his fives are the best of all time.
“He [Keegan Palmer] is really crazy and very smart.” I would never even try to do some of the things he does. But I think he has a lot of different flip tricks, and of course, the way he skates is very different.
It’s like having a feast where each cook brings a different recipe to the table. For skateboard fans in Paris looking for their fix, Carew and the rest of the field are sure to serve up something special.
Men’s park is full of very good skaters, especially from the U.S., Brazil, and Australia. This makes it one of the most open events of the four in Paris.
Carew will have already thought about and accounted for that. Since then, the hardworking skater who hasn’t missed a beat will have prepped and prepared for a moment he has worked hard for.
And he isn’t giving too much attention to what is expected of him in particular.