Video – Skateboarding Coming to Tokyo Summer Olympics 2020

Japan has always been known for its unique art and entertainment, which come from an ancient and rich culture. A uniqueness that can be easily spotted in their animation (anime), music videos, TV commercials, and films.

This time, it appears that the country will take its distinctiveness to a new level. An Olympic level.

The Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics will gather athletes from around the world to participate in their first-ever Olympics. On the 24th of July, next year, we will see a few sports make their Olympic debut.

Athletes from Surfing, Sports Climbing, BMX Racing, and Basketball 3×3 will have the chance to represent their countries in the biggest sporting event an athlete can wish for.

Of those athletes, there will be forty men and forty women competing in the popular sport of Skateboarding. They will be judged based on their speed, timing, stability, and the difficulty of their performances, while music will be playing in the background because Skateboarding is just too cool to be performed without beats.

The sport was supported by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to make an appearance in the previous Rio Olympics 2016, but we will have to wait until next year to see that happen. However, not many skateboarders are eagerly waiting for that event. As some of them think that the image of the street-born sport could be damaged by the Olympics.

I wanted to hear more about how do skateboarders see the new approach from the IOC towards the sport, so I went to Southbank Skate Space and had some interesting conversations with some of the skaters.