Rune Glifberg (born 7 October 1974), nicknamed "The Danish Destroyer", is a Danish professional skateboarder. He is one of three skaters to have competed at every

X Games The X Games are an annual extreme sports event organized, produced and broadcast by ESPN. Coverage is also shown on ESPN's sister network, ABC. The inaugural X Games were held during the summer of 1995 in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island, ...

. He has a total of 12 X Games medals. At 46, he became the oldest skateboarder to ever compete in the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...

and the first male skateboarder to ever compete in a park event in the Olympic Games when he represented Denmark in the men's park event at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

Early life

Rune Glifberg was born in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

and began skating at the age of 11 years after a friend brought a skateboard as a gift, which he had bought in the US. He entered his first pro contest in France in 1990 and turned pro in 1992. Glifberg moved from Denmark to

Costa Mesa, California Costa Mesa (; Spanish for " Table Coast") is a city in Orange County, California. Since its incorporation in 1953, the city has grown from a semi-rural farming community of 16,840 to an urban area including part of the South Coast Plaza–John ...

, after he finished secondary school in 1995.

Professional skateboarding

In the early 1990s, Glifberg turned professional as a

vert Vert or Verts may refer to: * Vert (heraldry), the colour green in heraldry * Vert (music producer) (born 1972), pseudonym of Adam Butler, an English music producer * Vert (river), in southern France * Vert (sport), a competition in extreme versi ...

skater and relocated to the United States. Glifberg signed a contract with Flip Skateboards and, as of July 2021, he remains a member of the company's professional team. Glifberg was sponsored by shoe company

Etnies Etnies (stylized as etnies) is a footwear brand based in Lake Forest, California, United States, and is owned by Sole Technology, Inc. As of 2013, the company sponsors professional skateboarders and BMX riders, LAB more and releases signature s ...

at around the same time as he joined Flip and his second signature shoe was called the , meaning "defend" or "defense" in Danish. As of September 2012, Glifberg has released a line of signature shoes with Converse that consists of "The Allston" and the "Rune Pro Mid" models. Glifberg is a playable character in the first five games of the Tony Hawk series of video games that consists of the four '' Pro Skater'' games and '' Tony Hawk's Underground''.

Company owner

Glifberg is a part-owner of Pipeline Distribution and runs a Copenhagen-based event company "RunEvent". RunEvent was the organizer of 2010's "Burning of the Witch" skateboard contest at

Amager Strandpark Amager Strandpark (Amager Beach Park) is a seaside public park in Copenhagen, Denmark. It is located on the island of Amager and includes an artificial island and offers a total of of beaches. From the beach, the Middelgrunden wind farm can b ...

in Copenhagen. Burning of the Witch was jointly sponsored by Volcom, one of Glifberg's sponsors, and ''

Thrasher Magazine ''Thrasher'' is a skateboarding magazine founded in January 1981 by Eric Swenson and Fausto Vitello. The publication consists primarily of skateboard- and music-related articles, photography, interviews and skatepark reviews. The magazine also ...

''. RunEvent organized Glifberg's 25th skateboarding anniversary that was held at

Fælledparken The park Fælledparken in Copenhagen, Denmark, was created 1906–1914 by landscape architect Edvard Glæsel in cooperation with the Copenhagen Municipality on the commons (Danish: ''fælled'') previously named ''Nørrefælled'' and ''Østerfæ ...

in Copenhagen during the summer of 2011. In 2009, Glifberg and architect Ebbe Lykke founded the skatepark design firm Glifberg+Lykke in Copenhagen. The duo have since taken the lead on a number of projects in Europe, including the Streetdome in Haderslev, Denmark; Oslo Skatehalll in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

, Norway; Skatepark Eller in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

, Germany; and the Urban Sport Zone in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

, Netherlands. File:Streetdome, Haderslev 2.jpg, Streetdome in Haderslev

Personal life

Glifberg resided in the United States for seventeen years, living for a period in the Leucadia district of

Encinitas, California Encinitas ( Spanish for "Small Oaks") is a beach city in the North County area of San Diego County, California. Located within Southern California, it is approximately north of San Diego, between Solana Beach and Carlsbad, and about south ...

. He moved back to Denmark in the early 2010s and, as of 2021, is based in

Contest history

X-Games The X Games are an annual extreme sports event organized, produced and broadcast by ESPN. Coverage is also shown on ESPN's sister network, ABC. The inaugural X Games were held during the summer of 1995 in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island ...

history: * Summer 2013 Skateboard Park: 4 * Summer 2013 Skateboard Park: 2 * Summer 2012 Skateboard Park: 3 * Summer 2011 Skateboard Vert: 17 * Summer 2011 Skateboard Park: 7 * Summer 2010 Skateboard Park: 7 * Summer 2009 Skateboard Vert: 7 * Summer 2009 Skateboard Park: 1 * Summer 2008 Skateboard Vert: 10 * Summer 2008 Skateboard Park: 1 * Summer 2007 Skateboard Vert: 7 * Summer 2006 Skateboard Vert: 5 * Summer 2005 Skateboard Vert Best Trick: 5 * Summer 2005 Skateboard Vert: 9 * Summer 2004 Skateboard Vert: 3 * Summer 2003 Skateboard Vert Doubles ( Mike Crum): 2 * Summer 2003 Skateboard Vert Best Trick: 6 * Summer 2003 Skateboard Vert: 3 * Summer 2002 Skateboard Vert Doubles (Mike Crum): 3 * Summer 2002 Skateboard Vert: 3 * Summer 2001 Skateboard Vert: 6 * Summer 2000 Skateboard Vert Doubles (Mike Crum): 6 * Summer 2000 Skateboard Vert 5 * Summer 1999 Skateboard Vert Doubles (Mike Crum): 3 * Summer 1999 Skateboard Vert: 12 * Summer 1998 Skateboard Vert: 12 * Summer 1997 Skateboard Vert Doubles (Mike Crum): 5 * Summer 1997 Skateboard Vert: 2 * Summer 1996 Skateboard Vert: 17 * Summer 1995 Skateboard Vert: 3 Competitive History * 2nd. Place - 2010 Vans Protec Pool Party * 2nd. Place - 2009 Converse Fix To Ride * 1st. Place - 2009 X GAMES 15 Skateboard Park * 1st. Place - 2009 Copenhagen Pro vert * 3rd. Place - 2009 Vans Protec Pool Party * 1st. Place - 2008 X GAMES 14 SUPERPARK * 1st Place. WCSK8 - World Champion Skateboarding World Bowl Rankings * 2nd. Place - 2008 Copenhagen Pro vert * 1st. Place - 2008 Quiksilver Bowlriders Malmo * 1st. Place - 2008 Vans Protec Pool Party * 2nd. Place - 2008 Bondi Bowl-A-Rama Australia * 1st. Place - 2008 Okaley Bowl-A-Rama Wellington, New Zealand * 1st. Place - 2007 Copenhagen Pro vert * 2nd in 2007 WCSK8 World Bowl Rankings * 1st. Place - 2007 Protec Pool Party * 1st. Place - 2007 Bowl-A-Rama Australia * 1st. Place - 2007 Quiksilver Bowlriders (Sweden) * 1st. Place - 2006 Northshore Bowl Jam * 3rd. Place - 2006 Desert Dog Park Slalom * 1st. Place - 2006 Desert Dog Bowl Bash * 2nd. Place - 2006 GVR Etnies Bowl * 1st. Place - 2006 Mystic Sk8 Cup: Vert * 2nd. place - 2006 Oregon Trifecta West Linn, Oregon Bowl * 1st. Place - 2006 Oregon Trifecta Lincoln City, Oregon Bowl * 2nd. Place - 2006 WCSK8 World Bowl Rankings * 2nd. Place - 2006 Vans Pro-Tec Pool Party * 1st. Place - 2005 Vans Pro-Tec Pool Party * 1st. Place - 2004 Mystic Sk8 Cup: Vert * 3rd. Place - 2004 Toronto West 49 Open Vert Best Trick * 3rd. Place - 2004 Toronto West 49 Open Vert * 1st. Place - 2004 Gravity Games: Vert * 1st. Place - 2004 Snickers Bowl Games * 2nd in 2003 WCSK8 Pro Vert European Rankings * 2nd. Place - 2003 Globe World Championships Vert * 1st. Place - 2003 Scandinavian Open: Vert * 1st. Place - 2003 Tampa Pro: Vert * 2nd in 2002 Pro Vert European Rankings * 1st. place - 2002 Scandinavian Open: Vert * Ranked 1st; World Champion Skateboarding Vert 2001 * 1st Place - 2001 Scandinavian Open: Vert * 1st. Place - 2001 Gravity Games: Vert * 1st. Place - 1998

Slam City Jam Slam City Jam, the North American Skateboard Championships, is the longest-running skateboarding event in North America and is among the best in the world. It debuted in Vancouver in 1994. The three-day event captures the vibrant music and lifesty ...

: Vert * 1st. Place - 1996 Slam City Jam: Vert

References

External links

* *
Rune Glifberg
at The Boardr {{DEFAULTSORT:Glifberg, Rune 1974 births Living people Danish skateboarders X Games athletes Skateboarders at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic skateboarders of Denmark Danish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Sportspeople from Copenhagen