Olympics: Skateboarders stoked to
send sport to greater heights at Games
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[July 26, 2019]
By Jack Tarrant
TOKYO (Reuters) - In exactly a year
from Friday, skateboarding will make its Olympic bow at the Tokyo
2020 Games with top skaters hoping the global exposure will help
take the sport to the next level of popularity.
What started with surfers attaching rollerskate wheels to wooden
slats in 1950s California is already a professional sport, of
course, but the Olympics offers skaters the chance to do their thing
on the biggest sporting stage of all.
"The publicity that skateboarding will get from the Olympics in
Tokyo 2020 is just going to change everything for skateboarding,"
said American Jagger Eaton, who made his X Games debut at the age of
11.
"(It makes it) more accessible for people like me who love competing
and want to compete."
The International Olympic Committee's drive to reach a more youthful
audience led to the inclusion of skateboarding along with four other
new sports for Tokyo.In a sport that is still firmly rooted in the
streets and urban skateparks, not everybody has been happy with the
prospect of skaters vying for gold, silver and bronze.
For the likes of Eaton or three-time street world champion Nyjah
Huston, though, skateboarding is all about competing -- and winning.
"I have a super competitive drive and I have worked my life,
everything, to get where I am at, to compete with the pros and I
just won't let anybody take that away from me," said 18-year-old
Eaton.
Huston, who has also won the Street League Skateboarding competition
five times, is the hot favorite for gold in Tokyo and sees the
Olympics as the extra motivation he needs after a decade at the top.
"It adds extra pressure but I am always going into every contest
with the same mindset. Going out there and doing the best to win. I
love a day out there competing," said the 24-year-old American.
"I feel like people might think I would be less competitive now or
less fired up after winning so much over the years, but I think the
feeling keeps growing and the love for skateboarding keeps growing."
COMPETITIVE EDGE
They will both need that competitive edge just to get to the Games
with only 20 spots for men and women in the two disciplines of park
and street skateboarding up for grabs.
Skaters can qualify with a podium finish at the next world
championships – in September for park boarders and next year for
street – or by placing in the top 16 in the Worldskate rankings.
Triple Olympic snowboard champion Shaun White is among those who
have declared an interest in taking part and Eaton said the threats
might not come from the usual suspects.
"The thing about Tokyo is that it is an open contest," explained the
2018 X Games silver medalist.
"Not everybody is invited to the X Games or these other contests so
that is why you have got to keep on your toes."
As hosts, Japan are guaranteed one spot per event but they are
likely to need more than that, such is the depth of skating talent
in the country.
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Jagger Eaton falls during the semifinals of the Men's Park
Semi-Finals DEW TOUR Long Beach skate event at Long Beach Convention
Center. Mandatory Credit: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports/File
Photo
Chief among that pool of talent are current street skating world
champion Aori Nishimura, who turns 18 on Wednesday, and 13-year-old
Misugu Okamoto, who currently leads WorldSkate’s park rankings and
is in pole position for Olympic qualification.
With eight skaters in the top 10 rankings across the two
disciplines, Japan's women are taking the sport by storm.
"In terms of girl skaters, we have had a lot more competing
internationally since it was announced to be an Olympic sport,"
Nishimura told Reuters.
"In Japan, they put a lot of emphasis on the Olympics."
YOUNGEST COMPETITOR
Skateboarding has long been a young person's game and they do not
come much younger than 10-year-old Cocona Hiraki, who will break
Eaton's record as the youngest competitor in X Games history in
Minneapolis next week.
Whether she qualifies or not, Hiraki hopes the Olympics can help to
further inspire a burgeoning skateboarding community in Japan.
"If we try to introduce the (skateboarding) style so that everyone
can join in and enjoy, then we can inspire people who do not know
anything about skateboarding," she said.
The IOC is hoping Hiraki is right and that a whole new audience
embraces skateboarding, and in turn the Olympics, come Tokyo 2020.
"It is the biggest sporting event in the world and there will be
millions of people watching this," said Nishimura.
"It is going to be a good opportunity for skateboarding to be seen
across the world."
That exposure will undoubtedly also help continue the transformation
of skateboarding from an urban recreation to a truly international
professional sport.
"I think a lot of people thought of skateboarding as a hobby, as
opposed to a career and parents seeing their kids making a good
living out of it," said Huston.
"My dad, he was a skateboarder, but his parents weren’t supportive
of it (but) I think it has now got to the point where people take it
more seriously and I am stoked to be out there and be a part of it."
(Reporting by Jack Tarrant)
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