TRIGGER WARNING: Please do not read the article if you believe skateboarding should not be in the Olympics.
Skateboarding will make history on July 25 - August 5, 2021, when the professional skateboarders become the first Olympians to compete in the mainstream international sports event in the world.
Olympic skateboarders will fulfill their childhood dreams when they participate in the forthcoming Tokyo Olympics.
As the pro athletes attempt to win the gold and represent their country, some core skaters are skeptical with the idea of skating to be part of the summer Olympic games.
Here's what you need to know about Skateboarding in the Olympics:
Olympic Skateboarding Managed By Rollerbladers
The entire governing body is called International Olympic Committee, and underneath that, there's World Skate, and they work directly with IOC. World Skate is a group of rollerbladers that controls the organization for skateboarding in the Olympics.
Every single country has its skateboard association. Some are handled by non-skaters. But overall, everyone will have to answer to the rollerbladers. Unfortunately, non-skateboarders have zero experience with skateboarding.
Park and Street Skateboarding Olympic Event
The park competition will take place on complex bowl and pool courses, while the street section will be plaza-style obstacles.
Olympic Skateboarding Judging System
The judging system will be like Street League Skateboarding judging system. They will score athletes based on speed, difficulty, originality, timing, stability, and the overall flow of the performance.
Every skater will have two tries at a 45-second run, and after they will do the best trick section where each skater gets five tries on each obstacle. The top four scores from each skater will be combined as their final score, and then the top score wins. There will be men's and women's at both park and street.
No Cash Prize For The Winners
The Olympics don't give out any cash prizes for any placing. Hence, it is an honor to compete for the skater's country. Individual countries provide cash to the athletes if they place or by just being there in the event. It also depends on how much each country will give to the skateboarders.
The contestants will highly likely receive corporate sponsorships if they received gold, silver, or bronze.
Olympian Skateboarder Uniforms
Skateboarders are required to wear uniforms whether they like it or not. However, skaters don't like being told what to do, especially what to wear.
The uniforms also shouldn't have any other sponsor logos, but there's a bidding process, and each brand will bid on the countries that wanted to make uniforms for the athletes.