Skateboarding’s reputation does a 180 as it rolls into Paris 2024

LOS ANGELES – Once viewed as the pastime of deadbeats and drifters, skateboarding’s reputation is changing rapidly after its inclusion in the Olympic Games in Tokyo three years ago.

The sport brought in a much-needed younger audience on its Olympic debut in 2021, leading organisers to lock it in for the Paris Games and its homecoming party in Los Angeles in 2028.

That is a far cry from the 1980s and 1990s when “sidewalk surfers” were seen by many as a nuisance and banned from many public spaces in the United States, resulting in the rise of the popular protest slogan “Skateboarding is not a crime”.

“Perceptions changed a lot after the Olympics,” Brazilian Felipe Gustavo said at an event that brought the world’s top skaters to Red Bull’s Athletic Performance Centre in Los Angeles.

“We were always getting judged as being criminals, doing drugs, all these stuff.

“Now it’s like, those are the cool kids from TV. Every time we’re riding our skateboard in the airport everybody is like, ‘Oh, my son skates’. The mentality is changing.”

Gustavo, who competed in street in Tokyo and will do so again in Paris, became a folk hero in Brazil after his father sold the family car to buy plane tickets to a competition in Florida that his teenage son won as a complete unknown.

Now 33, he hopes even more people will be drawn to the sport after its second turn on the Olympic stage.

“Skateboarding saved my life. Where would I be if I wasn’t skating?” he added. “It could save so many people’s lives.”

The notion that skateboarding is the exclusive domain of boys and men is also fading, with women like Tokyo gold medallist Sakura Yosozumi of Japan and Britain’s Sky Brown among the sport’s most recognisable names.

“When I go down to skate parks there are so many little girls there,” Australian Chloe Covell, 14, said.

“It’s just amazing to see them all.”

The street specialist was first drawn to the sport when she was six and saw American skateboarding icon and Paris gold medal favourite Nyjah Huston on TV.

“After that I got a board and just started practising heaps and heaps. I loved it and just got better and better,” she added.

“Now when I go down to the local skate park people come up to me and ask for photos. It’s really amazing.”

And to further dismiss the long-held view that skateboarding is only for the unserious, Ryan Decenzo, a 38-year-old Canadian preparing for his Olympic debut, said the qualities that make a great skateboarder are no different from those you need in any other sport.

“You’ve got to have drive, focus, commitment and not be afraid to fail or fall,” he said.

“And you have to love it enough that those falls aren’t going to make you give up.”

While some veterans of the sport, including skateboarding great Tony Hawk, had previously feared the Olympic spotlight could detract from its unique rebel street cred, the Tokyo Games succeeded in building a larger global community.

Skateboarding is gaining followers in Spain, in particular, with hundreds of wide-eyed enthusiasts flocking to training grounds in the hope of becoming professional athletes.

The number of skateboarding federation members in the country has soared to more than 1,100 in 2024 from just 72 in 2016 – the year of the last Olympic Games without the sport.

The seaside city of Barcelona is often referred to as the capital of skateboarding in Europe, and the trend is particularly notable on the wave ramps and bowls of the Marbella skatepark, where skate camps like Damien Chiche’s sell out every summer.

“All the media coverage around the Olympics has changed skateboarding, causing a new surge, where every kid wants, thinks, dreams, and believes they can make it in skateboarding,” said the 44-year-old Frenchman, who has been an instructor for 12 years.

The skateboarding competition in Paris starts with the men’s and women’s street on July 27 and 28 at Place de la Concorde and will feature the park events on Aug 6 and 7. REUTERS