Andy MacDonald: Champion of X Games and for Drug-Free Athletes

Hey guys, Jessica Smith here bringing you an all access pass to the X Games.

Andy McDonald, how are you today?

Feeling pretty good.

Today's the big day.

We got uh park this afternoon and then be here on the vert ramp tonight.

What do you do?

Cuz this is the Olympics for action sports.

Like what do you do to prepare?

Do you do like months ahead of time or how do you do it?

You're always preparing.

I mean, this is this is the X Games media wise, this is the circus.

This is like the biggest blown out television media event in skateboarding.

Um but it is just one event on the World Tour, you know.

Um I was at Asian X Games uh earlier this spring.

Um a couple weeks ago, I was in Rome at a contest and um you know, it's been going well so far.

I won both of those contests, so.

Yeah, yeah, so I'm trying to trying to keep that going here.

Now, did you ever think when you were like 12 years old, the first time you picked up a skateboard, did you ever think you would be here like winning gold medals or anything like that?

No, I mean when I first picked up a skateboard, I didn't even understand the concept of sponsorship or anything and it was it's it was and always has continued to be the funnest thing I know to do.

So, I'm lucky that I can make a living doing it.

I never would have thought I'd be able to make as good a living as as I have.

Um I'm one of the lucky few and and we're still a long way to go, but we've certainly come a long way.

Now, I have to say like what I admire about you as a writer and also just as a person is the fact that you promote a drug-free thing and I think that's so keen in sports and I love that you've, you know, kind of promoted that.

What made you do that?

It was a decision I made really young.

Um and and I actually have skateboarding to thank for it.

You know, I I luckily skateboarding found me before drugs and alcohol had.

And I was already so into skateboarding.

I knew I wanted to be the best skateboarder I could possibly be and I knew that drugs and alcohol were only going to hinder what I was trying to do on my skateboard.

So, you know, that first seventh grade party where somebody came up like, "Hey, McDonald, you know, try this." And, you know, I took one sip of beer and was like, "That is disgusting." And went right back to drinking my root beer and eating my Skittles and red vines and, you know, like uh getting all sugar high and going to skate.

You know, So, I just stuck with that and and haven't been afraid to um, you know, talk about it.

And you got to ride your skateboard in the White House.

That is so cool.

I was not the first.

That was another first.

Yeah.

Got to uh I I did a public service announcement for the partnership for drug-free America and uh the culmination of that was one of the more popular PSAs that that had that had been done up to that time and uh the culmination of that was um an invitation to the White House to introduce then President Bill Clinton and uh gave him a signed board and told him I'd give him some lessons and uh I I got to roll like I came through all, you know, background checks and security and came through all the metal detectors in the White House and there's this big long marble hallway out in front of me when I first got in, I had to just put my board down and roll a little bit.

The secret service agents weren't nearly as excited about it as I was.

A lot of the guys are getting into like rally cross and all of that.

Is that something that you maybe will explore?

It's funny, we did uh a ride for GoPro and we did our GoPro team meeting.

GoPro has such an eclectic team.

So, there's, you know, there's stunt pilots and there's kayakers and there's skateboarders and BMXers and car racers and whatever.

And we all got together um for this team meeting and we we met at the uh Sonoma Raceway up in Northern California.

And so we, you know, get together and talk about GoPro and just the editing, how the camera works and everything and then we'd go out and race Audis for an hour on the track.

And uh I my my racing partner was uh Bucky Lasek who is riding rally cross and sponsored by Subaru and whatever.

And that's what he does.

So, I got in the car with with Bucky and I was like, "Wow, we're going 130. Cool." He's like, "Whoa, break, break, break, break, break." I made him sick.

I gave him car sick cuz I was stopping on the gas, stopping on the break.

Don't know how to race, but it was good fun.

Thank you so much for spending time and telling me a little bit about it and good luck tonight.

Thanks for having me.