Tom Brady, Serena Williams, Shaun White Roger Federer, Sue Bird and Albert Pujols were among the superstar athletes who have walked away from the sports they dominated for more than a generation. Between them, they have countless championships and accolades that even the most daring competitors can’t even come close to touching.
Enter Tony Hawk.
He’s dominated skateboarding as much as the aforementioned superstars have at the top of their sports, but unlike the rest of them, he’s still pushing.
The 54-year-old skateboarding legend who completed the first documented «900» is a trailblazer in the sport and his legacy will continue through various professional skateboarding video games Tony Hawk and philanthropic efforts like The Skatepark Project, which helps build skate parks. in disadvantaged areas around the world.
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Tony Hawk speaks onstage as Metallica Presents: The Helping Hands Concert at Microsoft Theater on December 16, 2022 in Los Angeles. (Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images for P+ and MTV)
He has no plans to slow down.
«It’s always been the idea that there are new things to learn,» Hawk told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. «I never got into skateboarding because I thought I would be rich and famous, so it’s not like I want to rest my accolades. And obviously I’m older, so my skating style has changed a bit, but it still is. .which keeps me excited. And so I want to do it for as long as possible. When you ask about longevity, I mean, I guess now I’m the litmus test of how far you can go and how old. And I don’t plan on giving it up anytime soon, like that I’ll let you know when I arrive.»
While the kickflips and ollies will keep coming, Hawk admitted that he’s been more vigilant about his health over the past year.
Tony Hawk skates during a display before the Skateboard Vert competition at X Games Austin on June 5, 2014 in Austin, Texas. (Suzanne Cordeiro/Corbis via Getty Images)
Hawk said he has been closely monitoring his high cholesterol and high blood pressure for the past 10 years. He said he turned to Qunol supplements like CoQ10, which supports heart and vascular health, and turmeric, which has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.
For Hawk, the association with the wellness brand made sense.
«When they asked me if I was interested, I literally sent them a video of me holding a bottle and said ‘yes, I’m already a customer and have been taking CoQ10 for the last 10 years’.» she told Fox News Digital.
Hawk has put his health first and is trying to stay active to the best of his ability, even with his most recent injury.
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«I try to stay active as best as I can. Honestly, that’s been a challenge recently because I broke my leg last year and had to have a second surgery a couple of months ago,» he said. «So getting motivated to be active and exercise when it comes down to it has been really tricky.
Tony Hawk told Fox News Digital that he was already using Qunol when he was approached by the brand. (Qunol)
«But I do think it’s important to keep moving however you can. In general, for me, it’s a little more rigorous in terms of my skating and what I like to do. But when you get to it, you know, I’m 54 now. , and when you get to my age, keeping moving in any context will be helpful for your longevity I’ve been trying to work out to get my leg back in order, get on the stationary bike go swimming and finally like last week I’ve been able to skate again. So now, I’m up and running.»
Hawk has been competing competitively since 2021 after initially walking away in 2003. However, as he explained, he never got into skateboarding for the fame or the money.
«No, because none of it was even a dream growing up,» Hawk told Fox News Digital when asked if he thought it was possible for his career to explode like it has. «Nobody had ever achieved that kind of success. It gets tricky because I chose skateboarding because it was sort of the antithesis of mainstream and team sports because I love that it was more of a renegade and was more of an individual purist and both as an art form and as a Those are things that I really loved and it wasn’t about trying to make a name for yourself outside of our little world of skateboarding.
Tony Hawk, a professional skateboarder, listens during the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami on Saturday, June 5, 2021. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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«So to have this kind of success has been unimaginable and I’m grateful, obviously, I don’t want to write it off. I’m incredibly, incredibly grateful and the idea that I can still make a living at my age is something I never would have imagined as a teenager or even when I was twenty. It’s all just a dream come true.»