I’ve chosen skateboarding in the Olympics as my blog topic, because I love skateboarding. I first picked up a skateboard 10 years ago when my parents gave me the option to either go to the skate park with my dad and little brother or pick a sport at school. I didn’t like the rules and practice times of regular sports so I chose skateboarding and I’ve been hooked since. Skateboarding becoming an Olympic sport gave it so much more credibility around the world. It has also divided the skateboarding community and cause a lot of skepticism about whether or not this is going to be a good thing in the long run.
A lot of the mainstream media coverage has focused on the skateboarders who are Olympic hopefuls (like this article from the LA Times) and their views on it. These skateboarders view it as a positive, and in many senses this is going to be very true. It will benefit the women in skateboarding, who, have historically not been treated equally. It will also expose many new people to skateboarding. Jagger Eaton, an Arizona native and pro skateboarder, talked to Reuters about this.
When the possibility of skateboarding becoming an Olympic sport became a reality and not just a far fetched dream many pro skateboarders didn’t like the idea. Skateboarding being in the Olympics isn’t just affecting skateboarders in the United States either.
China has started promoting skateboarding more since it was announced to be included in Tokyo this year. For many Chinese skateboarders this is an unwelcome change.
I normally get my skateboarding news from Thrasher Magazine and Jenkem Mag. These cover skateboarding in a much different way than other major news organizations, and that’s because they don’t care about the newsworthiness of the subject, they care about how it affects skateboarding and skateboarders.
Thrasher only really talked about the Olympics when it was first announced to be an official sport. Since then the closest it’s gotten to the subject has been in interviews with pros and a skate event that was hosted at the Montreal Olympic Stadium, but had nothing to do with the actual games.
Jenkem has stayed closer to the subject by publishing stories about the possible rules and regulations, how China is gearing up for the games (aside from the one I’ve already linked above), and the first Dominican Olympic skateboarder.
Overall, I think that the mainstream media is covering it in the best and fairest way considering how their audience will appreciate the articles. I’m going to stick to reading the stories from Jenkem, though. To me, as a skateboarder, these are more significant and worthy of my attention.
