Athlete Profile

Tom Schaar: Golden Again At X Games

By Colin Bane

Tom Schaar was just 14 years old when..

...he claimed his first X Games gold, surprising the Skateboard Big Air field at XG Austin 2014. The bigger surprise? That it took another 10 years to score his second X Games title.

But there he was, atop the Skateboard Vert podium at X Games Ventura 2024 and fulfilling a goal he’d worked towards for exactly half his life. Schaar was 12 years old when he began competing in Vert at X Games. He just turned 25 on September 14, the week of X Games Chiba. Vert gold even surprised himself.

“If you had told me a year ago that I would win another gold medal, I would not have expected it to be in Vert, that’s for sure,” says Schaar, who has shifted focus to Park competition in recent years. “Honestly, the Vert gold is the coolest one for me because I grew up skating vert, and that’s where my heart remains.”

The victory in Ventura bolstered a bold claim Schaar’s lifelong peer Mitchie Brusco had made a month earlier, when posed the question, “Who is the best transition skater?”

“When you’re talking about pure skill on a skateboard, it’s hard to pick someone besides Tom Schaar,” Brusco posted on his Instagram account. “I’ve always thought that Tom is probably the best skater I've ever seen.”

Schaar is much too humble for such talk and certainly wouldn’t make a similar statement. But 12 X Games medals from 5 different skate disciplines -- Big Air, Vert, Park, MegaPark, Big Air Doubles -- is starting to speak for itself.

The Tom Schaar Fan Club Board of Directors

Tony Hawk is among those on record claiming Schaar is as good it gets. Skateboarding’s singular icon brought Schaar onto his Birdhouse Skateboards team earlier this year, surprising Tom in July with a signature pro deck. It was much deserved; Tom’s had an amazing 2024. In addition to his X Games Ventura gold, Schaar won the inaugural Tampa Pro Vert contest in April and squeaked onto the three-man Team USA Park squad by qualifying at the last possible moment in June.

“Getting that weight off my shoulders, just making it through the two-year qualifying process, made the rest of it less stressful when I got to the Olympics,” Schaar says. “I was just trying to enjoy being in Paris and not stress about it too much, which I think helped, ultimately.”

Indeed -- he earned a silver medal behind his good friend Keegan Palmer and even was dapped up by Snoop Dogg, who approached him after his Paris run to say, “Good shit.”

“I’m taking that as the highest praise I’ve ever gotten,” Schaar says.

X Games Ventura Vert Victory

Before jumping forward to X Games Chiba, let’s rewind to Ventura, where Schaar turned a Vert wildcard invitation into a golden ticket, taking on extra risk and extra disciplines just weeks before his trip to Paris.

“I mean, it’s the X Games! It’s what I grew up watching and loving, and it means a lot to me,” Schaar says, explaining the decision compete in three contests while reflecting on both of this summer’s marquee skateboarding events.

“X Games is a very important contest. The most important contest. The Olympics was big, and now having been there it was a much bigger deal than I’d imagined; I don’t want to downplay it. But skateboarding is not just a once-every-four-years spectacle. There’s a lot of other awesome stuff that happens in skateboarding. To me, X Games is as awesome as it gets.”

The thing he’s proudest of in his decade of stacking X Games medals is helping inspire a new generation of skaters to try vert. New vert events are popping up in Tampa, Virginia Beach, Salt Lake City and Huntington Beach, and internationally in Japan, Canada, Brazil and Sweden. Vert is on the program at the World Skate Games in Italy this month; Schaar hopes it’s a sign the discipline is coming to the Olympics.

“For a couple years there, it did feel like vert was dying,” Schaar says. “Now it’s worldwide again, with kids from all over the world winning contests, new tricks every day, women’s vert progressing as quickly as anything else in skateboarding…it’s thriving all of a sudden! It’s cool to see.”

“Built Different In Japan”

Schaar, a podium favorite in both Vert and Park at X Games Chiba 2024, is eager to earn his first Vert Best Trick medal. He’ll have to get through an increasing (and increasingly young) crowd of incredible Japanese skaters in all three disciplines.

“There are a lot of really good kids coming from Japan right now that are definitely going to put me into an early retirement,” Schaar says, referencing new competitors Ema Kawakami, Ao Nishikawa and Soya Inomata. “These skaters are obviously taking some heavy cues from Moto Shibata, who is one of my favorite skaters just because he’s got a different bag of tricks and everything he does is as perfect as it can be done. That’s the way these kids are coming up. They’re built different in Japan.”

Men’s Park is the last X Games skateboarding podium yet to be graced by Japanese skaters, and Schaar predicts that’s about to change in Chiba. “We just saw Yuro Nagahara win his first big Park contest in Portland [the Rockstar Energy Open], and it’s not a surprise to me at all because he has such a cool, natural style,” Schaar says. “Anyone interested in how to build a strong skate culture right now needs to be looking to Japan. It’s one of the places I’ve been looking for inspiration, and I can’t wait to go back.”

Schaar will inspire and be inspired at X Games Chiba 2024 beginning Friday, September 20th.

Tom Schaar Bio Blast