A lot of core skateboarders never wanted skateboarding in the Olympics to begin with and they’re not exactly throwing open the gates now.
If anything, the recent announcement about an age minimum for the 2028 Los Angeles Games has sparked more debates within the scene.
Olympic skateboarding will come with an age cutoff.
According to reports, you’ll need to be born in 2014 or earlier to compete in LA. That means skaters must be 14 at some point during the year of the Games and that requirement is being phased in gradually over the next few years on the World Skateboarding Tour.
World Skate says this rule comes from a "comprehensive debrief" after Paris 2024. But in a culture that’s built around freedom, creativity, and a serious dislike of gatekeeping, putting rules like this in place doesn’t always sit well - even if some agree it’s worth considering.
Until now, Olympic skateboarding was one of the rare events with no age requirement. That’s how we got moments like 12-year-old Kokona Hiraki winning silver in Tokyo’s park contest, becoming the youngest Olympic medalist in over 80 years. Or Momiji Nishiya, just shy of 14, taking gold in women’s street.
It was inspiring stuff, but it also raised questions. Not just about safety and pressure, but about whether the structure of the Olympics really fits with skateboarding’s roots.
Some skaters see the age minimum as a smart move, especially with how intense the training, travel, and media attention can get. Others think it’s just another example of Olympic organizers trying to mold skateboarding into something it was never meant to be.
“Skateboarding isn’t gymnastics,” one longtime park skater said. “We don’t need the youngest prodigy out there breaking records. We need style, creativity, and people who’ve had time to grow into their own skating.”
Still, there’s no denying that young girls have completely changed the narrative. At both Tokyo and Paris, the youngest Olympic gold medalists came from skateboarding - all female, all teenagers.
In Paris, Arisa Trew (Australia) and Coco Yoshizawa (Japan), both 14, took gold in park and street. But also in that mix was Zheng Haohao from China, who made headlines just for qualifying - she was 11 when she dropped in during prelims. That kind of moment might not happen again under the new rule.
The conversation now is less about whether skateboarding belongs in the Olympics. That ship’s already sailed and more about what kind of skateboarding the Olympics should showcase.
The new rules might slow down the youth takeover a little, but they also leave room for older skaters who’ve been grinding away for years to step up. And maybe that’s not such a bad thing.
Either way, it’s clear: the tension between skateboarding’s DIY culture and the structure of international competition isn’t going away anytime soon.