PARIS – If you happen to be golfing at Del Mar Country Club in the coming months, and you see a large, shiny, silver object on the green ahead, that belongs to skateboarder Jagger Eaton.
“I guess I’m gonna use this as my ball marker,” he said of the silver medal dangling from his neck.
Eaton is an avid golfer, one of those freakish athletes who picked up clubs a few years ago and has already lowered his handicap into the low single digits.
But the Encinitas resident is also a two-time Olympic medalist at age 23.
He won bronze in skateboarding’s street event in Tokyo three years ago.
Monday, he won silver – and almost gold – in a temporary stadium abutting the majestic Luxor Obelisk in Paris’ Place de la Concorde, with the Eiffel Tower peeking over the edge of the stands.
Japan’s Yuko Horigome repeated as Olympic champion when he landed the elusive Nollie 270 noseblunt slide on his final attempt to vault from seventh place to first with 281.14 points, a mere .10 ahead of Eaton. Nyjah Huston, who has won 15 X Games titles but finished a disappointing seventh in Tokyo, won bronze. Cordano Russell, who played football at Carlsbad High School and Horizon Prep, finished seventh representing Canada.
That makes three of the top seven who live or regularly train in San Diego County.
Eaton grew up in Mesa, Ariz., but moved to the area to nurture his prodigious talent. Huston lives in San Clemente and makes weekly trips south to the California Training Facility in Vista or North County skateparks. Russell grew up in St. Louis, where he was drawn to the sport after finding a skateboard in a bush as a 4-year-old, before coming west. He has been accepted to USD as a student (with no plans to play football) but deferred enrollment until August 2025.
Eaton was asked about the roller coaster of emotions in the eight-man final on a torrid Paris afternoon. He fell on his first run; needed to stay upright on his second to remain in medal contention; trailed Huston through…
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