Team USA skateboarder Jagger Eaton took home more than just a bronze medal from Tokyo.
“I think that Tokyo shaped me so much as a human, just the hard work and dedication that I put into it,” Eaton told NBC. “And going into Paris this time, I have so much knowledge.”
He also has two functioning ankles, which was a luxury he did not have in Tokyo when the then 20-year-old placed third in the skateboarding street event with a broken ankle.
He hopes to use the knowledge he gained while doing so – and both of his ankles – to take home another medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Get top local stories in Philly delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC Philadelphia's News Headlines newsletter.
“Going back to the Olympic Games,” he said, “means everything to me.”
With skateboarding having made its Olympic debut at the Tokyo Games in 2021, Eaton will forever be in the history books as the first American to medal in the event by winning bronze.
“When I found out I made the podium, it was the most surreal moment of my life because it was almost like my whole year-and-a-half or two years of preparation for that just happened,” he said.
Now the Arizona native is looking to take a step or two up the podium.
He won the men's skateboarding street competition at the Olympic Qualifier Series Shanghai in May.
Eaton was hoping to make more history by becoming the first skateboarder to compete in both Olympic disciplines, street and park, but fell just short. Competing in street includes a 45-second run on a course with stairs, rails and other elements, followed by five individual tricks. In park, skateboarders do a 45-second run on a varied course combining bowls and bends.
He became the first skateboarder to win world titles in street (2021) and park (2023). In May at the Olympic Qualifier Series Shanghai, he made the podium in each discipline, taking first in street and placing third in park.
No Olympian in Tokyo, men or women, competed in both events. Eaton, a five-time X-Games medalist, entered the qualification period among the top-ranked skateboarders in both. His quest to be a double threat in Paris was denied when he was forced to withdraw from the park semifinals after repeated falls during his warm-up routine. Tom Schaar went on to claim the third and final spot on the U.S. men's park Olympic team.
Instead, he'll focus entirely on getting back onto the podium in Paris.
“I’m really excited to compete hard,” Eaton said. “I’m looking forward to this journey and I got a lot of stuff in the arsenal that I’m waiting to put out.”
