Keegan Palmer (born 13 March 2003) is an Australian

goofy-footed Footedness is the natural preference of one's left or right foot for various purposes. It is the foot equivalent of handedness. While purposes vary, such as applying the greatest force in a certain foot to complete the action of kick as opposed to ...

professional skateboarder specialising in park skating. He turned professional at the age of 14. Palmer has been sponsored by

Nike SB Nike Skateboarding, primarily known as Nike SB, is the Nike brand for its line of shoes, clothing, and equipment for skateboarding. Nike Skateboarding won the 2020 Webby People’s Voice Award for Best Home/Welcome Page in the category Web. Hist ...

, Primitive, Oakley,

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

, Bones Wheels, Bronson Speed Co.,

Mob Mob or MOB may refer to: Behavioral phenomena * Crowd * Smart mob, a temporary self-structuring social organization, coordinated through telecommunication Crime and law enforcement * American Mafia, also known as the Mob * Irish Mob, a US crimin ...

, and

Boost Mobile Boost Mobile may refer to: * Boost Mobile (Australia), an Australian mobile virtual network operator * Boost Mobile (United States), an American mobile virtual network operator owned by Dish Wireless * Spark New Zealand Spark New Zealand Limit ...

. Palmer has been ranked ranked #7 in the

World Skate World Skate is the only governing body in the world for all sports performed on skating wheels. The organisation is the successor of the Fédération Internationale de Roller Sports (FIRS) founded on the 21 of April 1924. Due to the 2022 Russia ...

male park rankings. In 2021, Palmer qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games in the park skateboarding competition.

Early life

Palmer was born in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, to an American father, Chris, and a South African mother, Cindy, on 12 March 2003. He moved with his family from San Diego to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

as a one-year-old. Palmer began skating at two years of age when he joined his father at the local Elanora skate park and competed in the Australian Open skating competition at eight years old. He attended King's Christian College while based on the Gold Coast and was also interested in

surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...

from an early age but focused mainly on skating throughout his upbringing. Palmer returned to San Diego at 14 years of age in pursuit of a professional skateboarding career.

Career

In 2017, Palmer won the

Dew Tour The Dew Tour is an extreme sports circuit organized by the Adventure Sports Group, a subsidiary of American Media, LLC. History The tour was announced in late 2004, and made its debut in Louisville, KY in June 2005. The tour then made stops i ...

Am Bowl Final at age 14. Palmer made his debut in the Dew Tour in 2018, coming 7th in the finals. A year later, Palmer came 3rd in the 2019 Dew Tour finals, finishing behind

Pedro Barros Pedro Barros (born March 15, 1995), known as Pedrinho Barros, is a Brazilian skateboarder who is specialized in Bowl and Park Skateboarding. He won the silver medal in the inaugural Olympic men's park skateboarding event at the 2020 Summer Oly ...

and

Cory Juneau Cory Scott Juneau (born 1999, in San Diego, California) is an American skateboarder. He has competed in men's park events at several X Games, winning bronze in 2017 and finishing ninth in 2018 and 2019. He competed in the men's park event at t ...

. In the same year, Palmer came 4th in the Park Skateboarding World Championships in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

, Brazil. In 2020, Palmer won the Skate Australia National Park Championships. In 2021, Palmer qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games. On 5 August 2021, Palmer won the gold medal in the men's park skateboarding event at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games. Although locking in a gold medal 7.9 points ahead of his nearest rival, Palmer decided to do a

victory lap A victory lap (also lap of honor) is a term used in motorsports to describe an extra lap of the race track after the conclusion of a race. This lap, driven at reduced speed, allows the winning driver to celebrate their victory and gives the sp ...

. In the process, he improved his original score of 94.04 (from his first run) to 95.83 (on his third and final run), finishing 9.69 points ahead of his nearest opponent, Brazilian

. In the

2022 Australia Day Honours The 2022 Australia Day Honours are appointments to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by Australian citizens. The list was announced on 26 January 2022 by the Governor General of Australia, David Hurley. The Australia ...

Palmer was awarded the

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

References

External links

* http://www.worldskate.org/skateboarding/results.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Palmer, Keegan Living people 2003 births Australian skateboarders Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia American emigrants to Australia Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Australia Olympic medalists in skateboarding Olympic skateboarders for Australia Skateboarders at the 2020 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from San Diego Sportspeople from the Gold Coast, Queensland World Skateboarding Championship medalists