Tony Hawk puts greater focus on health but has no plans 'on quitting anytime soon'
Hawk is a legend in the skateboarding world and at 54 he is still kicking and pushing
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Tom Brady, Serena Williams, Shaun White Roger Federer, Sue Bird and Albert Pujols were among the superstar athletes who have walked away from the sports they dominated for over a generation. Among them, they have countless championships and accolades that even the most daring competitors may not even come close to touching.
Enter Tony Hawk.
He has dominated skateboarding just as much as the aforementioned superstars have been at the pinnacle of their sports, but unlike the rest of them – he is still pushing.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The 54-year-old skateboarding legend who completed the first documented "900" is a pioneer in the sport and his legacy will carry on through several Tony Hawk pro skateboarding video games and philanthropic endeavors like The Skatepark Project, which helps construct skate parks in underprivileged areas around the world.
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Tony Hawk speaks onstage as Metallica Presents: The Helping Hands Concert at Microsoft Theater on Dec. 16, 2022 in Los Angeles. (Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images for P+ and MTV)
He has no plans to slow down.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It's always been the idea that there are new things to learn," Hawk told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. "I never got into skateboarding because I thought I’d be rich and famous so it’s not like I wanna rest of my accolades. And, obviously, I’m older, so my style of skating has changed a bit, but it still is what keeps me fired up. And so I want to do it as long as possible. When you’re asking about longevity, I mean, I guess I’m the litmus test now to how far you can take it and at what age. And I don’t plan on quitting anytime soon, so I’ll let you know when I get there."
While the kickflips and the ollies will still come, Hawk admitted he has been more mindful of his health over the last year.
Tony Hawk skates during an exhibition before the Skateboard Vert competition at the X Games Austin on June 5, 2014 in Austin, Texas. (Suzanne Cordeiro/Corbis via Getty Images)
Hawk said he has been keeping close tabs on his high cholesterol and high blood pressure for the last 10 years. He said turned to Qunol supplements like CoQ10, which supports heart and vascular health, and turmeric, which has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}For Hawk, the partnership with the wellness brand made sense.
"When they approached me about if I was interested, I literally sent them a video of my holding a bottle and said ‘yeah, I’m already a customer and I’ve been taking CoQ10 for the last 10 years or so,’" he told Fox News Digital.
Hawk has put his health first and is trying to stay active the best he can even with his most recent injury.
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"I try to stay active the best I can. Honestly, that’s been challenging recently because I broke my leg last year and I had to have a second surgery on it a couple months ago," he said. "So, getting motivated to be active and exercise when dealing with that has been really tricky.
Tony Hawk told Fox News Digital he was already using Qunol when the brand approached him. (Qunol)
"But I do think that’s important to just stay in motion however you can. Generally, for me, it’s a little more rigorous in terms of my skating and what I like to do. But when you get to be, you know, I’m 54 now, and when you get to be my age, just staying in motion in whatever context is going to be helpful to your longevity. I’ve been trying to exercise to get my leg back in order, get on the stationary bike, go swimming and finally like last week I’ve been able to skate again. So now, I’m off and running."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Hawk has competed competitively since 2021 after initially walking away in 2003. However, as he explained, he never got into skateboarding for the fame or the money.
"No because none of that was even a dream when I was growing up," Hawk told Fox News Digital when asked whether he thought it would be possible for his career to explode like it has. "No one had achieved that kind of success. It gets tricky because I chose skateboarding because it was sort of the antithesis of mainstream and team sports because I love that it was more renegade and it was more of an individual purist and as much as an art form as it is a sport. Those are things I really loved about it and it wasn’t about trying to make a name for yourself beyond just our little world of skateboarding.
Tony Hawk, a professional skateboarder, listens during the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami Saturday, June 5, 2021. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"So, to have this kind of success has been unimaginable and I’m thankful, obviously, I don’t want to dismiss it. I’m incredibly, incredibly thankful and the idea that I can still do it for a living at my age is something I would have never imagined when I was a teenager or even in my twenties. It’s all just a dream come true."