Speaker 1: Simone Ladeci Shakri Lebron. They ain't got nothing on Tom
Speaker 1: Gavin and Tate Ocome everybody to this very special edition
Speaker 1: of Amy and TJ Robes. We have spent so much
Speaker 1: time watching Olympics coverage, but we've been getting into a
Speaker 1: lot of sports that we don't normally get to watch
Speaker 1: bad Medden, table tennis, canoeing, fencing, surfing, judo, and a
Speaker 1: lot of that is us asking questions like what are
Speaker 1: the rules here? What are you doing?
Speaker 2: We don't even I mean, I've watched sports that I
Speaker 2: didn't even know existed FORFO. So I've been doing a
Speaker 2: lot of Google searches, learning a lot about sports and
Speaker 2: just being in general awe of the athleticism in so
Speaker 2: many arenas and areas that I didn't even know was
Speaker 2: US sports.
Speaker 1: And so one of them we got and I shouldn't
Speaker 1: say stuck, but we got caught up in and watched
Speaker 1: every moment was skateboarding, and it was the women in particular.
Speaker 1: We didn't understand single rule like wait, she fell, she
Speaker 1: gets to go again, so they get one scratch it.
Speaker 1: So we were trying to figure it out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was street skateboarding, and we were in awe
Speaker 2: because what they were doing was crazy and watching them
Speaker 2: fall and just bounce back up and dust themselves off
Speaker 2: with a big old smile and try it again.
Speaker 1: So that was street skate, yes, but there's also park
Speaker 1: skate that we're about to get an education on in
Speaker 1: the next couple of days. But we're going to get
Speaker 1: it right now. From one of our stuts. Tom Sharp
Speaker 1: joins us from Paris. Okay, you have to forgive us here, Tom,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to help get everybody caught up a
Speaker 1: little bit. So let's start with that park skateboarding. What
Speaker 1: exactly are we talking about here.
Speaker 3: I've had to try and explain it to a lot
Speaker 3: of people over the past couple of days, and it's
Speaker 3: kind of hard to explain. I guess the best way
Speaker 3: to put it would be, it's like an empty backyard
Speaker 3: pool on steroids, pretty much.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's pretty good.
Speaker 2: All right, that's very cool, And like I'm sure many
Speaker 2: of your counterparts, you got started very very early. When
Speaker 2: I was googling you, one of the words that came
Speaker 2: up in association with your name was prodigy. When did
Speaker 2: you start skateboarding?
Speaker 3: Oh god, my older brother skated and that's how I
Speaker 3: got into it, And I think I really started when
Speaker 3: I was like four or five. So I've been skating
Speaker 3: for twenty years now, which is pretty crazy to say.
Speaker 2: Wow, twenty four years old, been skating since you were four,
Speaker 2: You're at the Olympics. Tell me how you're feeling right now.
Speaker 4: It's pretty crazy.
Speaker 3: If you would have told me this is where I
Speaker 3: would be when I started skating, I would not have
Speaker 3: believed you.
Speaker 4: Absolutely not.
Speaker 1: When did it become, I guess, a job or a
Speaker 1: mission or something more, Because I'm sure when you first
Speaker 1: picked up a skateboard you were just having fun, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure you still have fun doing it, But when
Speaker 1: did it kind of become serious and a craft and
Speaker 1: you had a mission of being competitive?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you're exactly right. Started skating just because
Speaker 3: I loved it. It's the funnest thing ever, and it
Speaker 3: still is for me. But I guess as I kind
Speaker 3: of like progressed and got better, it started kind of
Speaker 3: showing I was doing more contests and doing better in them,
Speaker 3: and I just kind of started taking it more seriously.
Speaker 3: I don't really remember how old I was, maybe when
Speaker 3: I was like fifteen or sixteen or something and then yeah,
Speaker 3: I just tried to kind of really work on it
Speaker 3: a bunch and it's it's paid off.
Speaker 4: I made its bears, so I'm really happy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say so. I would say, so, tell
Speaker 2: us what we're going to see when the best of
Speaker 2: the best you included, of course, skate that basically unfilled
Speaker 2: pool area in Paris. Tell us what we're going to
Speaker 2: see at home.
Speaker 3: So you get forty five seconds to do the best
Speaker 3: run that you can in that time, and you get
Speaker 3: three tries, and yeah, it's pretty much just be as
Speaker 3: creative as you want with your forty five seconds and
Speaker 3: try and please the judges the best you can. You'll
Speaker 3: see a lot of kind of errors, and it's a
Speaker 3: lot different than street streets, like more of a technical
Speaker 3: kind of It's maybe a little bit harder to understand
Speaker 3: for like the average viewer, but park I feel like
Speaker 3: it's a little easier for someone that doesn't know skateboarding
Speaker 3: as well to understand because it's just kind of high
Speaker 3: speed and there's a lot a lot to look at
Speaker 3: for your eyes.
Speaker 1: So how much of that is as you all just
Speaker 1: winging it? Do you know exactly what routine you're going for?
Speaker 1: Or you just go out there and kind of fill
Speaker 1: it and let the chips fall what you may.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean to an extent. When we first started,
Speaker 3: it's kind of winging it. We have four days of practice,
Speaker 3: so you have enough time to kind of try and
Speaker 3: figure out the whole park, and by the end of it, Yeah,
Speaker 3: everyone usually has a pretty good run in their head
Speaker 3: that they know they want to do.
Speaker 2: That's crazy. You make up your run when you get
Speaker 2: to Paris and you see the course and you just
Speaker 2: figure it out. That would be so freaky to me.
Speaker 2: Everyone else coming in, or at least I would believe
Speaker 2: that most people going in to the Olympics have a
Speaker 2: routine that they've been practicing, specifically four years. Even someone
Speaker 2: knows what fault exactly, so you're just like figuring it
Speaker 2: out on the fly. That is remarkable. Do you have
Speaker 2: a coach? How do you get to the level you're
Speaker 2: at right now to be an Olympian park skateboarder.
Speaker 3: I don't personally have a coach. We have the Team
Speaker 3: USA coach Andrew Nicholas, and he's been great helping us
Speaker 3: all out. But I mean, you can kind of know
Speaker 3: what features will be in the park, it's kind of
Speaker 3: similar every time, so you can kind of practice those
Speaker 3: specific things, but you never know if everything's going to
Speaker 3: line up the way you want it to. So that's
Speaker 3: why we get our four days practice try and really
Speaker 3: kind of dial everything in and make.
Speaker 1: Sure how many runs do you all get to do
Speaker 1: in front of the judges?
Speaker 4: We get three?
Speaker 1: He gets three? So combined score, you dropped one. How's
Speaker 1: that work?
Speaker 4: Just your best run counts.
Speaker 3: Whatever one they thought was the best is the score
Speaker 3: they get, and then they take the top eight from
Speaker 3: the semi finals to the finals and then it's the
Speaker 3: same thing again in three runs forty five seconds.
Speaker 2: Wow, I mean that's a lot of pressure, Tom. How
Speaker 2: nervous do you get? Do you get nervous?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I definitely still get nervous. It's even though I've been
Speaker 3: doing contests for I don't know how long, fifteen years now,
Speaker 3: probably I still just get as nervous as I did
Speaker 3: with my first one.
Speaker 2: So what do you do before you go to quell
Speaker 2: your nerves to get focus to get in the zone.
Speaker 3: I mean, honestly, I just kind of try and remind
Speaker 3: myself how lucky I am to be in this position
Speaker 3: just doing this so I just kind of try and
Speaker 3: look at it as like a big picture instead of
Speaker 3: just dwelling on if I can do my run. Just
Speaker 3: kind of remind myself that I'm just here to kind
Speaker 3: of show the world what skateboarding is supposed to be.
Speaker 1: We hear so much about how athletes, elead athletes prepare.
Speaker 1: I mean you hear about the nutrition and the sleeping
Speaker 1: habits and the all of this that the tracksors might
Speaker 1: do or the gymnast might do. But for a skateboarder,
Speaker 1: how do you prepare? Is there a special meal, do
Speaker 1: you have to use a certain diet or do you
Speaker 1: are you drinking mountain dew? That's the stuff we have
Speaker 1: in our head. I mean, just tell us what is
Speaker 1: your regiment or your your physical regimen.
Speaker 3: I do a good amount of training outside of skateboarding,
Speaker 3: just to try and stay healthy and strong the best
Speaker 3: I can. But food wise, I mean just trying to
Speaker 3: eat healthy and nothing too crazy. I mean, the chocolate
Speaker 3: muffins in the village are pretty good.
Speaker 2: So I be I was going to ask you a
Speaker 2: lot's been made of Olympic Village food that it's not
Speaker 2: been up to part. What has your experience been like?
Speaker 2: So far an Olympic village.
Speaker 3: The food is it's all right, it's not that bad.
Speaker 3: The best is more where I'm struggling, But I mean,
Speaker 3: it's it's all in all, it's it's all right, it's
Speaker 3: all right.
Speaker 1: What's the Olympic experience like for a skateboarder? You'll, I
Speaker 1: mean there's a bunch of big name athletes, very recognized
Speaker 1: the bull and you all probably not necessarily among that
Speaker 1: group of most recognizable guys. So what's it like for
Speaker 1: a skateboarder to hang out Olympic village? Which is just
Speaker 1: what's the Olympic experience been?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 4: It's cool.
Speaker 3: I get mixed kind of feelings from people. We were
Speaker 3: going around asking random people what sport they thought we did,
Speaker 3: and a couple of people just said nothing. But then
Speaker 3: there were other people that we told we did skateboarding, like, oh,
Speaker 3: that's so cool.
Speaker 4: I want to check it out. So it kind of
Speaker 4: depends who you would ask. I feel like, that's funny.
Speaker 2: Have you had that oh my god, Olympic moment yet?
Speaker 2: Just walking around? Have you met anyone that Wow? Do
Speaker 2: you have you just had that I can't believe I'm
Speaker 2: here moment?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Absolutely, doing the opening ceremony, meeting the whole basketball team.
Speaker 3: I see someone in our building like almost every day.
Speaker 3: It's it's pretty insane.
Speaker 1: That's it's so that's so cool and casual. It's always
Speaker 1: great to hear those stories. Are Are you able to
Speaker 1: have family there to experience this with you?
Speaker 3: Yeah, my mom and my dad, my brother are all
Speaker 3: out here. But honestly, I think they're enjoying it more
Speaker 3: than I am. They've gone to like every event so far,
Speaker 3: and they're just they're having a good time.
Speaker 2: Have you say, have you been able to watch any
Speaker 2: of the events. Have you been able to watch any
Speaker 2: of the Olympics or you just focused on your event?
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've been here for like ten days now. Practice
Speaker 3: just started, so I had like a week of three
Speaker 3: times just kind of hang out. And we went and
Speaker 3: saw ping pong which are sorry table, which is by
Speaker 3: far my favorite one.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: We got judo and three v three and uh three
Speaker 3: v three basketball and a bunch of other stuff.
Speaker 4: It was It's very cool.
Speaker 1: How competitive we're going to be. Talking to your teammates
Speaker 1: as well and your friends of course, Gavin and Tate,
Speaker 1: what questions would you want an interviewer to ask your
Speaker 1: two friends to put them on the spot. What should
Speaker 1: we ask them?
Speaker 3: I think just asking them more about the village. They'll
Speaker 3: probably have some better insight than out.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, all right, that's always that's always good information.
Speaker 2: And this it really is a brotherhood. When we see
Speaker 2: you all competing, A lot of you all are all
Speaker 2: from southern California. You've been skating together for your talk
Speaker 2: a little bit about Obviously you're competing against one another,
Speaker 2: but what is it like to be with the guys
Speaker 2: who are really a part of your family and you're competing.
Speaker 3: Against Yeah, exactly. I mean we all grew up skating together.
Speaker 3: I've known everyone in this contest since I was eleven
Speaker 3: twelve years old, so it's really just like a big family.
Speaker 3: And we all get to do these other contests outside
Speaker 3: of the Olympics, so we're always hanging out pretty much
Speaker 3: all year round.
Speaker 4: It's really special.
Speaker 1: Well, I wonder we're gonna let you go here, man,
Speaker 1: And I wonder because you sound so chill your voice,
Speaker 1: so I expect you to be much more intense once
Speaker 1: you get into that pool on steroids in Paris. To
Speaker 1: congrats to you, young fellow, Really, man, are I assure
Speaker 1: you no matter what time you all are on, we
Speaker 1: will be up and watching it live.
Speaker 4: I think it might be another three am for you guys,
Speaker 4: but thank you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you don't say break a leg to a skateboarder, right,
Speaker 2: what do you just saying about?
Speaker 4: Probably not, but it works.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Tom, Thank you.
Speaker 2: All right, everybody, we have Tom's good friend Gavin Bodker
Speaker 2: here with us, current world champion. And Gavin, did I
Speaker 2: get this right? You're just seventeen years old?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm seventeen.
Speaker 2: Wow, seventeen, current world champion and you are in Paris
Speaker 2: at the Olympics. Let me ask you how you're feeling
Speaker 2: right now.
Speaker 6: It's insane. I'm still like it hasn't really settled and
Speaker 6: I've made it.
Speaker 5: I don't know, it's crazy.
Speaker 2: That makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1: You got other friends who are sixteen, seventeen years old
Speaker 1: back in California. I assume what are they doing right now?
Speaker 5: Probably just skating, I mean vacation.
Speaker 2: But so, Kevin, how did how did you get into
Speaker 2: the sport? I mean, we're probably we're hearing before the
Speaker 2: age of six or seven, y'all were already skating and
Speaker 2: doing your thing.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, I started skating when I was five
Speaker 6: years old in South Lake, Tahoe, and it was just,
Speaker 6: I don't know, it's kind of random. We just went
Speaker 6: to a park and like I brought like a scooter
Speaker 6: by kind of skateboard, and I just was like kind
Speaker 6: of trying it all, and I don't know, I just
Speaker 6: stuck with the skateboard and pretty much from skating every
Speaker 6: day that I can since then.
Speaker 1: Now Tom Tom was telling us that you all start,
Speaker 1: of course, always for fun. Everybody picks up a skateboard
Speaker 1: just wants to go out and have fun. I'm sure
Speaker 1: you still have fun in what you're doing. But when
Speaker 1: did it become a thing. Where are some folks like
Speaker 1: you just naturally blessed skateboarders or this is something you
Speaker 1: just got to put in the time and the results
Speaker 1: will come.
Speaker 6: I think there's a little bit of there's definitely I'm blessed,
Speaker 6: Like I'm definitely blessed, But yeah, I put in a
Speaker 6: lot of time into this, So yeah, it didn't just
Speaker 6: come out of nowhere.
Speaker 2: Were you always a goofy footed skater skater?
Speaker 6: Yes, I was goofy footed, But when I first started snowboarding,
Speaker 6: my first whole season. I snowboarded the whole season regular,
Speaker 6: and then on the last day I switched to goofy.
Speaker 2: And now you to explain to everyone doesn't know what goofy.
Speaker 2: I've already googled it, but explained to everyone who's listening
Speaker 2: what it means to be a goofy footed skater.
Speaker 6: So when you're a goofy footed skater, if you're standing
Speaker 6: on the board, your right foot is in front, but
Speaker 6: when you're regular, your left foot is in front.
Speaker 1: Simple as that. Have you been giving a lot of
Speaker 1: folks in education and skateboarding there in Paris?
Speaker 5: Kind of not as much as I expected.
Speaker 2: Actually, perhaps when you've all actually start competing. On the
Speaker 2: day you compete, people will be wowed and asking a
Speaker 2: lot of questions afterwards. What has your experience been like
Speaker 2: so far at the Olympics? What have you done? Who
Speaker 2: have you seen? How do you feel?
Speaker 6: I feel good. I mean it's been crazy. I've seen
Speaker 6: like a lot of people that like it's like whoa like?
Speaker 6: I don't know, it's like shocking starstroke, I guess, but
Speaker 6: uh yeah, I've just been trying to keep skating the
Speaker 6: whole time.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's go back. Who's got your starstruck.
Speaker 6: Pretty much like any of the basketball players. That's aw
Speaker 6: Lebron and I felt like the smallest person ever next
Speaker 6: to him.
Speaker 1: But it was gooz, do you fool fanboy out and
Speaker 1: get the selfies or you try to play it cool
Speaker 1: from southern California. You're cool kid now.
Speaker 6: I try to play it cool. But yeah, I asked
Speaker 6: for it selfie you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, very casually asked for a selfie any game.
Speaker 6: Actually not from Lebron because he was photoed out the
Speaker 6: day that I asked him.
Speaker 5: It was on the opening ceremony days.
Speaker 2: So oh, you can always try again, right, always try again.
Speaker 2: Have you seen any events while you're there or are you
Speaker 2: just focused on skateboarding.
Speaker 6: I've seen I've seen the other skateboard events and so
Speaker 6: I've been I haven't seen them in person. I've been
Speaker 6: watching them on TV. I just haven't had the time
Speaker 6: to like get into those events.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just like us, we've been watching them on TV too.
Speaker 5: I have to.
Speaker 2: I mean, just you see the unbelievable attempts that your
Speaker 2: fellow skateboarders make and then sometimes they crash and burn.
Speaker 2: Talk a little bit about what it takes to get
Speaker 2: up the nerve to do the tricks you do, and
Speaker 2: how much risk are you actually putting your body in
Speaker 2: when you do some of these moves.
Speaker 5: I mean you're putting a lot.
Speaker 6: You're putting your body at risks like insane, but you
Speaker 6: have It's basically you just have to know that you
Speaker 6: can get out of it if something goes wrong, like
Speaker 6: when you're in there, you kick your board away and
Speaker 6: tuck your shoulder or something, or make sure you get
Speaker 6: to your feet, and that's all it is. If you can,
Speaker 6: if you know you can get out of it. I
Speaker 6: feel super comfortable.
Speaker 1: Are you going into this fully? Pretty healthy right now?
Speaker 6: No major elements, pretty healthy. I tweaked my neck yes
Speaker 6: or two days ago. I don't know what happened. I
Speaker 6: just got out of the bowl and my neck just
Speaker 6: like kind of locked up on me. So yesterday I
Speaker 6: didn't really get to skate all of practice, and I've
Speaker 6: been battling it all morning.
Speaker 2: And that gets in your head. I would imagine Kevin
Speaker 2: also being the current world champion, A lot of pressure.
Speaker 2: You're seventeen. How do you handle the mental part of
Speaker 2: this and the nerves you I am sure will have
Speaker 2: going into competition.
Speaker 6: I feel like For the mental part, I just try
Speaker 6: and just remember its skateboarding and it's not that serious.
Speaker 6: We're just here to have fun and it's like this
Speaker 6: is super new for skateboarding, so it's I'm just stoked
Speaker 6: to be here.
Speaker 1: Are Do you feel like an ambassador of the sport
Speaker 1: right now? Again a lot of people about to watch
Speaker 1: skateboarding who only watch it once every four years.
Speaker 5: Yeah, not really, but maybe after this time. Do you have.
Speaker 2: Pressure on yourself? Do you say I'm going to come
Speaker 2: home with the gold or I want to meddle? Like
Speaker 2: what what have you told yourself you want to walk
Speaker 2: away from the Olympics with.
Speaker 6: I just want to walk away knowing that I tried
Speaker 6: my best and I feel like that's all I can
Speaker 6: hope for is just to skate as good as I
Speaker 6: can and see what happens, not think about the results
Speaker 6: as much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the last couple of things here give us a
Speaker 1: better idea of the experience at Olympic village. What's that
Speaker 1: been like for you? Your room, the food, the people,
Speaker 1: the friends you make, and the whole atmosphere. Are you're
Speaker 1: enjoying it? Just get folks that people are so fascinated
Speaker 1: back here about Olympic village. So what's your experience been
Speaker 1: for a skater?
Speaker 6: I feel like it's a little bit different, just because
Speaker 6: you're walking around and like baggy cut off jeans and
Speaker 6: like you're skating around and people are kind of looking
Speaker 6: at you. Like I definitely feel I've fell out of
Speaker 6: place a couple of times, just because like there's these
Speaker 6: huge ripped like dude girls, I'm like a little guy
Speaker 6: walking around with my skateboard and so yeah, I definitely
Speaker 6: get some some I catch people just like kind of
Speaker 6: looking at me.
Speaker 1: A little weird, but like why are you here?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I like, whoa what does he do? Or something
Speaker 5: like I don't know.
Speaker 2: You know, it's funny too. You make a good point.
Speaker 2: You've got these athletes who and you put in the time,
Speaker 2: but it's a little bit more formal. They have coaches.
Speaker 1: You don't.
Speaker 2: You didn't have a coach getting into this. This is
Speaker 2: just you rewheeling it, doing what you love and doing
Speaker 2: it at a very very high level.
Speaker 5: Yeah, basically.
Speaker 6: But food has been it's been all right, nothing nothing
Speaker 6: too bad yet, but it's definitely not my favorite.
Speaker 1: Okay, nothing too. I have nothing to write home about.
Speaker 1: But do you have family and friends there and enjoy
Speaker 1: the experience with you.
Speaker 6: Yeah, a lot of my family is here. I have
Speaker 6: my dad, my mom, my brother, cousins and aunts and
Speaker 6: grandpa and grandpa.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's awesome. And Kevin, wait, are you about to
Speaker 2: be a senior in high school?
Speaker 6: I'm actually taking the taking a break from high school
Speaker 6: right now, just to we'll focus on this and that
Speaker 6: makes sense.
Speaker 2: So I was just wondering what it would be like
Speaker 2: to go back to school with it.
Speaker 6: I mean, I haven't actually been to school and quite
Speaker 6: a while I've been doing homeschool.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, I mean with what you do, that
Speaker 2: makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 5: Y doing this at this level, there's no way I
Speaker 5: can go to actual school and continue to escape.
Speaker 1: I don't know, good, I don't know if you made
Speaker 1: the right call, man, to skip school and have to
Speaker 1: go to Paris and possibly get a gold mill. I
Speaker 1: don't know, man, it don't worry out. But whatever, it's yours,
Speaker 1: it's your life. You do your thing, man, Please, please
Speaker 1: please tell your tell your your your teammate Tate. We
Speaker 1: were hoping to talk to him today as well, but
Speaker 1: we were told he had to go write to practice.
Speaker 1: We're gonna miss him, that's okay. But man, I cannot
Speaker 1: tell you the amount of joy all of you all
Speaker 1: are bringing to our faces. And we're getting up at two, three,
Speaker 1: four in the morning to watch you all do your
Speaker 1: thing live and we're looking forward to seeing you.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 1: Really, good luck to you there in Paris. Brother God
Speaker 1: pulling for you.
Speaker 5: Thank you, thank you so much. Congratulations Kevin, thank you.
Speaker 5: This is awesome. Se