Skateboarding, At the Olympics? And Soon?

Skateboarding was a pretty raw and edgy thing for about a decade from the early 90's through the early 00's. There wasn't much big business or Corporatism involved. Skateboarding, like most things, involved a varying degree of degeneracy. It was however true to form and mostly true to itself.

Two things caused an upheaval in skateboarding. The first was The Tony Hawk Pro Skater Series of games. The other was the X-Games exposure. Those two money-makers marked a radical shift of what skateboarding was about making the "sport" much more about money and profit. Skateboarding, aside from being a a real get out there and do something sport became much more of a spectator sport and a money-maker/commodity. A lot less youngsters were out skateboarding but more were into the commoditized manufactured "lifestyle." Recall Jackass

Some malls have at least three "skateshops" now but there are far fewer Mom and Pop Skateshops. The major companies went through a lot of changes to maximize profit. The popular style in Skateboarding from the clothes, to the shoes to the boards and more were completely reworked. There was a complete rebranding afoot. It was almost as if the older generation was being pushed out. Worst of all and as a whole, the culture became much more top down and cliched. In a word, it lost it's soul.

At the point we're at today, maybe the industry is unsustainable. As luck would have it though, the Olympics are looking to be adding skateboarding.

According to Olympic.org, an Olympic Committee is looking to add:

Breaking, skateboarding and sport climbing all appeared as medal events at the Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires 2018, while skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing will make their debuts on the Olympic programme in Tokyo in 2020.

The sports proposed by Paris 2024 will be reviewed by the Olympic Programme Commission. A recommendation by the Commission will then be presented to the IOC Executive Board in March. If accepted, it will then be presented to the IOC Session.

After the Session, and following any necessary observation at the Tokyo 2020 Games, the final event programme and athlete quotas for the new sports will then be finalised.

The Olympics Programme Commision seems to be trying to make the the Olympics more worldly, think one world. Or the ever oxymoronic "hip and inclusive.

Building on the reforms of Olympic Agenda 2020, the IOC has been striving to make the Olympic programme gender-balanced, more youth-focused and more urban.

We only have one "spaceship earth."