Legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk will serve as an NBC Olympics correspondent for the Tokyo Games, during which skateboarding makes its Olympic debut.
Hawk, 53, joins a correspondent team that also includes the popular figure skating pair of Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir, NBC News national political correspondent Steve Kornacki and award-winning broadcasters Mary Carillo and Jimmy Roberts.
“With their unique presentation styles, the correspondents will tell stories about the athletes, competition, culture, and history, as the Olympic Games return to Tokyo for the first time since 1964,” according to an NBC Sports press release.
Hawk, a 12-time world champion, took part in the 1996 Olympic Closing Ceremony during an extreme sports performance to hard rock music.
He became the first vert skateboarder to land a 900 in 1999. Also that year, the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater™ video game debuted. A 46-year-old Danish skateboarder who was in the first version of that game qualified for the Tokyo Games.
Skateboarding was added to the Olympic program for Tokyo under new rules that allow hosts to propose sports strictly for their edition of the Games. Skateboarding was added along with baseball, softball, karate, sport climbing and surfing.
Skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing were also added for the 2024 Paris Games.
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1996 Olympics closing ceremonies. Outfits on point.
— Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk) March 10, 2016
Frazier Crum Dyani Hendrix Cab Way Hawk Howard Menditto Boyle pic.twitter.com/E98KdPGRuP
