SOL | Summer X Games '97

[ SKATE VERT ]

Tony Hawk owned the night and produced probably his best skate run ever.

[ AUDIO ]
Rune Glifberg talks about how second place seems like first.

Tony Hawk talks about his first medal (gold) of this year's games. It could be the first of many, what do you think?

[ OTHER RESULTS ]
Skate Vert Final Results (6-26-97)
Skate Vert Preliminary Results (6-26-97)

[ PHOTOS ]

[ SOUND OFF ]
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[ X - GAMES INDEX ]

Tony Hawk Is God!

At 29 years of age Tony Hawk would seem to be a little too old for skateboarding. Strange thing is, he's still progressing. Thursday night during the second run of the 1997 Summer X Games Vert Finals Hawk turned out the best performance of his life to beat out Rune Glifberg, Brazil's Bob Burnquist and the rest of the 10 man field.

Starting on the roll in above the deck Tony hit four consecutive 540 variations in a row, nailing each one of them. He threw in the tailgrab, the varial, and blew the crowd away. After the first 540 the entire mob was on their feet screaming. After landing that 540 salvo Hawk launched into a combination of large airs and a flurry of switch lip tricks. He second run earned him a score of 97.50. "I don't know where that run came from," he said after the contest. "I had the 540s planned, but after that I didn't know what I was going to do."

Hawk is the undisputed master of vertical skateboarding, but this run was one of those moments that rises above both the venue and the sport of skateboarding, and screams to the world. Nearly 200 million people will see that run tonight and what they will see is the performance of a virtuoso. Period. There is no one in the world who is better at what they do than Tony Hawk on a vert ramp.

That said, Bob Burnquist and Rune Glifberg pressed Tony with their performances. In the first run Burnquist was switching all over the ramp. He launched a huge 540 and then kicked down a switch backside lipslide that had the crowd on their feet. He scored 92.25.Rune followed that up with tailgrab 540, a Madonna to tail over the channel, and a backside heelflip for a score of 92.75. Bucky Lasek lofted a 540 and finished off his run with a frontside 360 and landed at 90.75.

After that, nothing changed. In the next two runs were filled with falls by nearly everyone but Tony Hawk. Danny Way who entered the finals in tenth place fell on every run. Mike Frazier hurt his knee. Chris Gentry slammed on his face. Lincoln Ueda, who boosted higher than anyone else in the contest just couldn't nail his landings. In fact, aside from Hawk's second run, no one could match the performances of their first so the rundown remained relatively the same.

Directly following the contest Tony was rushed away to a flagged off area where he could sign autographs and talk with fans before getting his medal. Some congratulated him while others just stood and stared.

One reported asked Hawk when he was planning to retire from skateboard competition. "I'd quit tomorrow if I thought I wasn't progressing," he said. "But I feel like I'm still getting better so I don't really know how long I'll keep doing it. I guess I'll retire when I stop progressing."

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