Tom Schaar: Skateboarders are like family

With this year’s park competitions behind him, Schaar will turn his focus to his next big goal: the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028.

Born in Malibu, a city west of LA, the Games offer the American skater the chance to compete at home, and it’s an opportunity he doesn’t want to miss.

“I’m definitely going to try and go to the next Olympics,” says Schaar on his future goals.

“The qualifying stuff starts next year, and after I think these couple of contests this year are done, I’ll just start focusing on getting ready for that and just try and do my best again.

“Towards the end of it [the last Olympic cycle], I kind of figured out better how they judge contests and what they’re looking for, I guess, more. And I think just knowing that now it will be easier for me to know what certain tricks to work on.”

The skater’s plan to go away and expand his repertoire comes in the wake of vert world champion Gui Khury landing history’s first 900 in a park bowl on the World Skateboarding Tour World Cup stop in Ostia, Italy, back in June.

Having been the face of skate innovation for a period of time, it’s clear Schaar’s admiration for Khury’s “crazy” feat runs deep. But any suggestion that such an achievement might act as a dividing line between the skaters as they push onwards, Schaar quickly dismisses. 

“Every year, every contest, it’s like there’s someone new doing some new crazy stuff, and then we all get inspired from each other, so we’ll see that we’ll just build, and it’s just like a constantly evolving kind of thing, and it’s really cool,” he says.

“It’s always a good time, and I hope that’s what people take away from seeing skateboarding in the Olympics is that, yes, we’re there as Olympic athletes trying to do our best, but it’s also, I mean, we’re just, we are skaters first.

“It’s like a family, like I grew up with all these people, and we’ve all skated together since we were like little, little kids, so I think just showing that it was a good camaraderie, and you know, skating’s about fun. You shouldn’t get into skating because you want to be like a competitive skateboarder. It’s supposed to be a fun thing. And then as you progress, you just start progressing, and it’s a natural thing. It shouldn’t be a forced kind of thing.”