Skateboarding’s Epic Debut to the Olympic Stage
Just a couple of days into the Tokyo 2020 (2021) Olympics and Skateboarding makes its incredible debut onto the Olympic stage.
With the lead up to its appearance, skateboarding has been looking good (This is assuming you are happy with the idea of contest skating on a world stage). The quality of courses designed and built by California Skateparks has been at an all time high which has given a great consistency to the contest circuit. The format has felt well refined and simple to follow. A tried and tested format all skaters and audience members seem to relish and enjoy.
The level of tricks in these contests has also improved dramatically with this clear and quality contest circuit. The pathway this standard of event has created has been backed up by the growth in competency. No more so than in the Women’s, which will air today.
So did the Olympic pathway for Men’s Street Skateboarding deliver?
In a word, yes. The level of skating and drama throughout the pre-lims (semi-finals) and Finals was incredible. Even with Shane O’Neill, the Australian hopeful, not qualifying through the pre-lims for the finals, I felt a huge sense of tension. One of the great things about skateboarding culture is the lack of nationality or background having an impact on who you support. As their competitors landed top scoring tricks, other skaters would congratulate them even during an event as important as the Olympics. I feel it is a trait unique to skateboarding and a few other sports where you want to see your competitor do the best they can and feel energised by their success.
The feed in series of contests, and number of representatives from each country left a well rounded, but very well deserving draw. The skaters who made the final all deserved to be their, and all had a solid chance of a medal position.
Men’s Olympic Street Skateboarding Final Results
Yuto Horigome JPN - GOLD MEDAL (final score 37.18/40)
Kelvin Hoefler BRA - SILVER MEDAL (final score 36.15/40)
Jagger Eaton USA - BRONZE MEDAL (final score 35.35/40)
Vincent Milou FRA (final score 34.14/40)
Angelo Caro PER (final score 32.87/40)
Aurelien Giraud FRA (final score 29.09/40)
Nyjah Houston USA (final score 26.10/40)
Gustavo Ribeiro POR (final score 15.05/40)
What worked what didn’t?
Overall I think for a first showing in the Olympics, skateboarding was shown pretty darn well. As well as we could hope for considering what a complex situation it is to show a new sport, especially amongst the Covid restrictions and upsets.
Worked Well:
Course design and build - High quality, high stakes, exciting to watch, looked great.
Filming/Broadcasting - Never missed any tricks, everything was filmed well, no one flying through the air with no reference point of what they were doing.
Judging and Scoring - For the most part, this felt spot in. No complaints for where people placed.
Use of Skate Industry Professionals - The use of Atiba as a key photographer and Kelly Hart managing the World Skate social media was huge. All the coverage leading up to the contest was skate magazine quality. They really had the best in the world and it showed.
Uniforms - All things considered I think these were great. If you expected the athletes to be wearing Jeans and a thrasher shirt…you’re missing the whole Olympic, country pride side of it. The skaters had to wear a country specific ‘uniform’ but they all seemed comfortable in them. No spandex in sight!
Format - Simple Pre-lims and Finals worked really well. There was no fluff, no seeding, no re-matches. It gave everyone an equal chance and the right people made it through. Hard to think of a way this could’ve been improved.
Music in the stadium - A small aspect, but I noticed all the music played live at the stadium was from classic skate videos and that gave it a very authentic feel. Music selection had clearly been made by skaters.
What could be improved:
Mainstream commentary. The commentary at the start (with Nick Boserio in Aus) was great. They knew exactly what they were talking about and it was great to listen to. When the swimming came on and we were bumped to 7+ the commentary switched to a generic one with British commentators. Unfortunately while they knew a lot of tricks, they kept mistaking tricks and getting them wrong which was frustrating. As rubbish as this was, I’m a hardcore skater who will always notice this, for the general population I’m sure there was enough to take in and the tricks names don’t matter.
What’s Next?
The Women’s Street Skateboarding starts today (Monday 26 July) at 9:25! Get a screen up and support Aussie Hayley Wilson in that!
Next week we have Women’s Park on Wed 4 August, and finally Men’s Park on Thur 5 August. In these 2 events we have Poppy Starr, Kieran Woolley and Keegan Palmer representing Australia. Best of luck!
