Stateboarding’s Olympic & What It Means

Skateboarding debuted at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, played in 2021 due to the pandemic. Those who participated in this sport competed for 12 medals that asked competitors to street skate and skate through a park that is similar to a skate park. Competitors from Japan, Australia, and Brazil took gold and silver while the American team walked away with two bronze medals. The introduction of skateboarding into the Olympic Games has a larger impact on the sport in terms of exposure, inclusion, and reputation in the future.

Entrance into the Olympics means that not only has the international community embraced the sport, but its debut has long-lasting effects on skating and skating culture. One of the most immediate impacts of skateboarding being received in the Olympics is that it can expose more people to the sport. These are people who might have never become interested in the sport if they had not seen it on this particular platform.

The world-class competition exposes more people to skating culture as a whole. In the United States, the activity is a culture-based sport with many associating it with counterculture, which places the athlete in the position of dealing with law enforcement because skating in public spaces (rails, parks, and walkways) is not allowed.

This introduction to the Olympics is an inclusion opportunity for traditionally marginalized groups. Women, in particular, will get more exposure by participating on the world stage, where women’s sports gain as much attention as men’s. With big sponsorships and magazine cover interviews on the table, women who make it to the Olympics can benefit from this platform. Before the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, men overwhelmingly gained from this type of exposure through other types of competition.

The Olympics has also made it possible for people in the LGBTQ community to compete and get exposure in the same space. For example, the American team at the 2020 Olympic Games comprised at least two team members who identified outside traditional gender roles, one identifies as queer and the other as non-binary.

Entrance into the Olympics can also improve some of the sport’s reputation issues. The United States is not the only place where the sport is seen in a negative light. In other countries, such as Japan, the sport is seen as dangerous. However, the sport’s reception is different in other parts of the world, and with the Olympics establishing a competition for the sport, there is the possibility that skateboarding will become legitimate worldwide.

However, skateboarding’s entrance to the 2020 Olympic Games did not come without criticism. The sport is commonly associated with an outlaw culture, and for many in the community, the jump into the Olympic arena is viewed as selling out.

Even so, being included in the Olympics provides the sport the chance to expand beyond its traditional boundaries. A sport that allows its participants to express themselves creatively, skateboarding is a platform to push boundaries to see where the sport and the community can go.