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.
Photo: Tom Schaar during Men’s Skateboard Vert Best Trick Final at 2024 X Games Ventura at the Ventura County Fairgrounds in Ventura, CA. ©Mark Kohlman/X Games
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Colin Bane 