Competitions in the sport of skateboarding, governed by World Skate, have been held at two editions of the Summer Olympic Games. First selected as one of the discretionary sports at the 2020 and 2024 games, skateboarding will be inducted as one of the mandatory sports at the 2028 games. Athletes compete in the disciplines of park and street skateboarding – each their own events. Japan has won both the most gold medals (5) and most medals overall (9).
Bid for inclusion
In September 2015, skateboarding was included in a shortlist along with baseball, softball, karate, surfing, and sport climbing to be considered for inclusion in the 2020 Summer Olympics;[1] and in June 2016, the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that they would support the proposal to include all of the shortlisted sports in the 2020 Games.[2] Finally, on August 3, 2016, all five sports (counting baseball and softball together as one sport) were approved for inclusion in the 2020 Olympic program.[3] One of the biggest obstacles for skateboarding for an inclusion at the Olympics was that huge injuries in skateboarding were so risky (which can include death) and the IOC was less likely to take liabilities. Also the skateboarding sub-culture helped push the idea that the Olympic Games were too "mainstream" for the sport, and as a result skateboarding organizations did not campaign heavily for the sport's inclusion.[4]
You must be logged in to post a comment.